Reflections (Episode 9)
Welcome back to the Coloniality, Western Science, and Critical Ethnic Studies in STEM Education dissertation!
In the final episode of the Coloniality, Western Science, and Critical Ethnic Studies in STEM dissertation, I offer some reflections and thoughts about the ideas and concepts presented throughout.
TRANSCRIPT
We made it the last episode! This is the part where I’m supposed to talk about the implications and limitations and all of that jazz.
What I have, instead, are some reflections. I think it’s more true to this process and this dissertation to think about it as reflections as opposed to limitations and implications.
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Hey listeners!
I'm LaToya Strong and I'm a doctoral candidate at The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York.
You are listening to my dissertation!
Before I get into the reflections, just a quick recap. This dissertation pulled from a lot of things. Something I will speak about at the end. We started this journey in episode one talking about my relationship with academia. And how that shaped why I decided to go about this as a podcast. Using critical transdisciplinarity we weaved together settler colonialism, Black geographies, decolonial theory to really situate Western Science in its historical contexts and understand the culture that it is embedded in. Without colonization, these modern disciplines could not have evolved as they did.
We’re no longer in that period of colonization, but the coloniality remains. Coloniality is the systems, practices, and structures that dictate how society operates as a result of practices established during colonization. We looked at the rise of modern botany and modern medicine to illustrate how the coloniality has shaped Western Science today
Then we looked at the impact that the launch of Sputnik had on the United States to bridge the gap between the more distant than Sputnik past and the present. The response to the launch of Sputnik established outer space as the next environment to conquer. And it also codified the coloniality of Western Science into science education. And we saw this in three ways, through assimilation, through capitalism, and through imperialism. And finally we brought or are bringing, at least trying to bring, the future to the present. This returned us to a Black feminist futurity which then led us to Abolition Science and critical ethnic studies.
So where do we go? Institutionally? In the realm of teacher education? In the realm of science education teaching, learning, research, and reform? Where do we go? I do not have an answer. I know I’m supposed to, but I don’t. I think this will be more clear, hopefully, in the reflections that follow. In thinking about imagination and creativity as part of the Black Feminist Futurity and Abolition Science, I was struggling I was like, “okay now why can’t I imagine?” And honestly, I think for me right now, I just don’t see these institutions as a solution. I think that is my imagination imagining for me. Or at least the beginning of it. It doesn’t mean that the work doesn’t get done and I’m throwing in the towel or the tile if you will. The institution has a role, but not in the solutions part of this equation.
I think it's really thinking about and reimagining community, coming back to community, moving away from individualism, realizing that we are connected to each other but we're connected to the Earth and everything on it, and no matter how much we wish that's not the case, it is the case. And so for me the idea of imagining the future or imagining what you may not have known is all about seeking, right? There's that saying, "Seek and you shall find." And in my travels and in my reading I've been exposed to so many different people and thought processes and ways of life that I would not have come across, and that has opened me up to what I can imagine a future being. (Lavan, 2022)
That was Makeba again, speaking about imagining beyond what we know. While I don’t think institutions are the solution, I do think they can be fertile ground for different people to come together to work collaboratively and collectively who wouldn’t otherwise have met. Because in the society that has been created, institutions like schools, colleges and universities, which are also schools, jobs, etc. is where we meet people outside of our community, or culture, where we engage with new ideas, and theories. These aren’t the only ways, but it is a way. I think what I’m really proposing is to imagine beyond the institution.
Okay, now for these reflections!
One. Critical ethnic studies and ethnic studies. I mentioned this in the last episode, it’s not an either/or, but a both/and. We need both. I view critical ethnic studies as the approach. That is what guides us and grounds us. Critical ethnic studies is the what and the why and ethnic studies is the how. It’s what moves us from theory to action. From big critique to creating curriculum and pedagogy and programs, etc. Fortunately for us, ethnic studies exists and has a long history of pedagogical practices, and curriculum development. So there are resources available that can support this, but there would need to be more intentional and thoughtful work done to really figure out what this means for STEM education. The use of ethnic studies in the classroom is obvious for subjects such as history and ELA or social studies. But less obvious for STEM, so I do think it will take a different kind of work than if we were trying to implement it in a subject like history.
Two: Teaching ethnic studies is not easy
I wanted to start by just making sure that it's clear in my mind, what is an ethnic studies teacher.So that one is the first struggle, cuz it's hard to understand, like as an elementary school teacher, you don't have a title, ethnic studies teacher, there's no coursework curriculum that's specifically dedicated to it. So it took me a long time to feel like I was an ethnic studies teacher or more broadly a critical educator. So I had to really discover that for myself and study, like what does that mean and how do I define it?
The next struggle is how do I take all of these concepts, theory, learning? What I believe in my heart is right, and then apply it to the day to day of the classroom. And that's been the struggle because as an elementary school teacher, you're teaching multiple subjects, you have a lot of prescribed or mandated curriculum from the district that you have to use in collaboration with grade level partners. And you're evaluated often on the ways that you use that curriculum or the way that you set up your classroom in response to that curriculum. And it's been challenging to do that and incorporate all these things that I know I feel are right and true within the limits of those. Also, even if you are boundless, like let's say, you don't have to use any of the curriculum provided you just go off of state standards, which are pretty broad and open. Then time becomes the issue. You are basically creating everything from scratch and you have to get the books and create assignments and make it exciting and interesting. And then you have to communicate that to your grade level partners. And you have to get a willingness of participation from everyone because it's not easy in an elementary school classroom for your one classroom to be, look, sound, feel completely different from the other grade level team. Everything has to be done within like–a lens for equity.
So those have been some of the challenges that I've been dealing with. So in small portions, you know, you incorporate pieces that you can here and there, you use some of the prescribed curriculum. You bring in some of your own, you bring in a lot of guest speakers, but it's not always. So I don't know what's the right word. So clear. And you just kind of doing a lot of things that over time, if it works, you kind of wanna repeat, but nothing's ever, like, a formula that you can kind of just keep going and keep doing. So that's been also struggles. So like with these prescribed curriculums, you know, there's like a pacing guide and there's like a plan there's like units and you build it out and you kind of go through it year by year. I've been hoping and trying to do that for elementary school, as an ethnic studies teacher, across multiple subjects all these years that I've been teaching and I'm still struggling to do that. We've sat with folks to try to build units and curriculum. And as the school year continues so much of what we plan doesn't even function within the day or whatever the realities of the classroom and the student population that's happening at the time.
So that's been some of the struggles, other real struggles are just time, time to plan, time to gather resources, time to test things, time to make examples, and then time to collaborate with coworkers. Another one is like I mentioned, just working in isolation often because it's challenging to find folks who are on board or to do things together consistently when turnover in teaching has been a challenge, you know, different folks coming in and out. Myself, having been shifted and moved around more than I would've hoped. So, consistency and finding people to collaborate with like-minded people centering those same ideas and concepts.
Another struggle is administrators' evaluation process. So, as much as I would do a lot of things in my classroom, sometimes you catch a lot of, what's the word, like, heat on the back end. So, I'll bring speakers in or I'll introduce curriculum or stories or projects, and then when evaluators come in, they're like, "You're classroom's kinda not on task," or "You're off the, the guide," or "How come you're not working on, you know, this chapter, the pressure of the pacing guide? Instead, you're over here doing these other things," or "Those guest speakers" —You know, concepts of, like I said, um, mind, body, spirit, soul, have to be delicately walked on—around. You can't, like, say spirit in the classroom. It's not okay to do that sometimes. So, you have to just talk about intuition or, you know, things can sometimes feel coded. Those are some very small, specific examples, but those have been some struggles.
Um, so the other things are—So, just to clarify, like, struggles, like working often in isolation and alone. But another side is finding people to collaborate with and then the time to collaborate, incorporating y-—elements of ethnic studies, teaching into the standard prescribed curriculums. And, um, the evaluation process has been a challenge. And then finding like-minded folks to work with.
Um, the support that I could use would just be, again, time to collaborate and connect, time outside of the classrooms. You can't always do it in the middle of your day. Um, some resources like financing to support the resources that I need, like if it's buying books or bringing in speakers or taking students outside of the classroom. Sometimes when you're working with a lot of students who are first generation, their parents are not able to be, like, fingerprinted or, you know, volunteer in the specific ways a school district wants them to be, so that's a challenge. You know, just really specific things, it's not always easy to do those things. And burnout is a problem, (laughs) so finding ways to cope with that.
That was my friend Nicole, an elementary school teacher out in Cali. And Nicole outlined very thoroughly what the challenges are that have to be overcome. Teaching and learning will look different and feel different and how do we prepare everyone for that? How do we provide teachers with the support that they need?
This leads to three. Real systemic and structural change to the institution of STEM education and Western Science will be an uphill battle.
The adoption would require severe change and coordination to make that change to teacher education curriculum and programs (Pham, 2018). And all this will require money, training, and new staff. And as we have seen the money is tied to the military and US global economy. Unless this was viewed as something that would push those things forward–which it isn’t, it’s actually viewed as a threat–the money ain’t gon’ be there.
And not to mention, we cannot provide teachers with appropriate support with the system we currently have.
Four. If we’re truly considering what critical ethnic studies means the question is do we even want this to be taken up by institutions?
Five. This project really relied on the individual teacher implementing it in their classroom or place of work. The guide was created through a collaborative process, but ultimately those of us that tried it did so in our own classrooms. Starting from these big broad concepts and Western Science and then going to science education and funneling all of that into something that educators can use as they are developing curriculum or reflecting on curriculum places a huge burden on teachers. Not burden as in they can’t handle it. But burden as in, this isn’t any different than other policy changes that gets funnel down and make it the teacher’s responsibility. The difference is that the teachers in the ItAG and teachers like them, want to do this work. But that does not change the fact that they are both doing the same thing.
Six. What we did is very context dependent. Would we have developed something different with a different group of teachers? Absolutely. The categories that we renamed and the guiding questions that we made may not be useful for everyone. And that is okay. It doesn’t have to be useful for everyone. It can just be useful for someones. haMy hope is that folks actually took up the invitation to do their own ItAG. And if you did, that’s just more tools and resources for us all to use.
Seven. I use we a lot. And I guess it’s like the royal we, but not so more of an anti-royal we. So we are me and you, the listener. It’s just me, myself, and I up in my apartment but I’m talking to y’all. The De La Soul version in case you are wondering.
Eight. My role in this was as researcher-participant-facilitator. This was the third ItAG I co-facilitated. As a co-facilitator I always consider myself a participant as well because of how collaborative the process is. Even though I was doing my research, I did not change how it was structured, meaning how I’ve structured other ItAGs in the past, except sessions were audio recorded. I felt tension because I had to constantly ask myself, would I be doing this or saying this if I wasn’t doing research.
Nine. I want to return to practicing refusal, specifically the community part that I mentioned in episode one. Except for clips from organizations, all the other voices reading quotes, and adding input are people in my life that have been on this journey with me. There’s the acknowledgement section where you give thanks, but it didn’t feel like enough. And I realized with the audio format, I could incorporate people’s actual voices. And all the people you heard reading quotes, or offering thoughts, are in my life in a very intimate way. It felt good to have them participate so dynamically because at least for me, I’m the one doing this podcast, but it was my community that enabled me to do this.
And that is the final reflection.
I’m going to close this dissertation out by reading some passages from Dear Science by Katherine McKitrrick. So we’re bout to have story time y’all. I’m reading these passages because I know that this dissertation has a lot of threads and was pulling from a lot of places and bringing together different ideas. One, it’s just how my brain works. Two. It’s also deeper than that. And I didn’t know this until I read Dear Science. Listen, y’all can’t tell me that Katherine McKittrick didn’t write this for me.
The first passage is on page four and it starts at the top of the page.
Dear Science argues that black people have always used interdisciplinary methodologies to explain, explore, and story the world, because thinking and writing and imagining across a range of texts, disciplines, histories, and genres unsettles suffocating and dismal and insular racial logics. By employing interdisciplinary methodologies and living interdisciplinary worlds, black people bring together various sources and texts and narratives to challenge racism. Or, black people bring together various sources and texts and narratives not to capture something or someone, but to question the analytical work of capturing, and the desire to capture something or someone. The stories think through how racism and other forms of oppression underpin the political economy of academic and nonacademic disciplinary thinking (the desire to gather and live with seemingly transparent data, in a range of sectors; living with data [policies, reports, cards and carding] that ostensibly prove that those communities living outside normalcy are verifiably outside normalcy; giving over the data in exchange for capital).(McKittrick, 2020, p. 4)
The second passage is on page five.
This is a way of living and analytical frame that is sustained by desire. This is a method that demands openness and is unsatisfied with questions that result in descriptive-data induced answers. Black studies and anticolonial thought offer methodological practices wherein we read, live, hear, groove, create, and write across a range of temporalities, places, texts, and ideas that build on existing liberatory practices and pursue ways of living the world that are uncomfortably generous and provisional and practical and, as well, imprecise and unrealized. The method is rigorous, too. Wonder is study. Curiosity is attentive. Black method is therefore not continuously and absolutely undisciplined (invariably without precision, invariably undone). Black method is precise, detailed, coded, long, and forever. The practice of bringing together multiple texts, stories, songs, and places involves the difficult work of thinking and learning across many sites, and thus coming to know, generously, varying and shifting worlds and ideas. (McKittrick, 2020, p. 4)
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Thank you to my friends Makeba and Nicole for their contributions to this episode.
Thank you for tuning in to this episode.
For coherency and flow of narrative, I did not always name who I was citing or drawing from so please visit the transcript to see all citations and references.
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