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We are at a critical stage in science education where accountability is the driving factor in decision-making for our students. The role and responsibility of the NSTA, on all levels, is to provide a voice for those who need support in being heard. As Multicultural/Equity in Science Education Division Director, it is my job to STAND UP and ADVOCATE for ALL students and teachers to have equitable access to opportunities and resources that support science education. My belief is that while acknowledging the issues of an imperfect system, I must use my professional experience and expertise to support productive solutions. I intentionally support NSTA's beliefs by embracing our diversity and assisting all teachers in gaining access to resources needed in implementing Three-Dimensional Learning, Next Generation Science Standards, and a Framework for K-12 Science Education.
Every member is vital to NSTA regarding developing strategies, determining smart goals, implementing methods for resolving current science education issues, and teaching the underrepresented and underserved. I continuously bring to the NSTA leadership team my diligence, heartfelt passion, tenacious work ethic, and an idealistic philosophical belief that a quality science education is inclusive and attainable for all students.
NSTA President Alicia Conerly officially kicks off Philly25 with a warm welcome message to all attendees!
Discover the latest insights and updates from NSTA Engage Spring 21, featuring innovative science education strategies.
Explore the principles and practices of social justice teaching and how they impact inclusive science education.
Resources from Multicultural Ed & Equity Committee: Combating Systemic Racism & Inequity
SURVEYS
● This pertains especially to Black teenagers: learn more.
● The Harvard implicit bias test for race: learn more.
VIDEOS
● Ibram Kendi's YouTube video on How to be Anti-racist: view now.
He makes the points very powerfully that we are all racist, having 'breathed in' the white-dominated culture from our birth, and that there is no such thing as 'not racist'--we are either racist or anti-racist since there is no in-between.
● Emmanuel Acho’s YouTube video Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man
● The Marshall Project: What Becoming American Means Now
● America to Me --series of films shot in a US high school
● A conversation with Bettina Love, Gholdy Muhammad, Dena Simmons, and Brian Jones about abolitionist teaching and antiracist education: Watch Now.
PODCASTS
● The Deep End Friends Podcast, Episode 17: Interview with Ijeoma Oluo, author of "So You Want To Talk About Race?"
● 1619 (New York Times)
● Code Switch (NPR)
● Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast
● Pod for the Cause (Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights)
● Pod Save the People (Crooked Media)
BOOKS for White people on racism
- White Fragility by Robin D’Angelo--does a good job of helping majority-culture whites realize the tensions experienced every day by our BIPOC friends and colleagues.
- How to be Anti-racist by Ibram Kendi (also see the link to his YouTube video)
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
- We Want to Do More Than Survive by Bettina Love
- Solving Disproportionality by Eddie Fergus
WEBSITES
● Access lots of free resources.
SYSTEMIC RACISM IN ORGANIZATIONS
● https://korbettmosesly.com/blog/f/10-ways-to-practice-institutional-racism-at-your -non-profit
● https://www.dismantlingracism.org/uploads/4/3/5/7/43579015/okun_-_white_sup_ culture.pdf
● https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-with-implicit-bias-training/
ARTICLES
● Performing Whiteness by Sarah Bellamy https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/06/08/the-performance-of-white-bodies /?fbclid=IwAR37wZRXSwwTXfYdzMOIq1jVl0KPyWKpc5sC3y786l-97eO1T9Ber MPQ9iM
● Microaggressions & Microaffirmations, Brown University 2
● ASCD: Building Racial Justice and Equity
● In this edition of Equity Dispatch, Great Lakes Equity Center explores the concepts of Ally & Accomplice: Two Sides of the Same Coin
● Follow-up Article to Video 1-Bias-Howard J. Ross https://medium.com/national-equity-project/implicit-bias-structural-racism-6c52cf0 f4a92,
● https://medium.com/space-anthropology/diversity-is-a-dangerous-set-up-8cee94 2e7f22 (This is a long article but one that makes some important points. Dr. Prescod-Weinstein argues that "a focus on implicit bias at the expense of an attention to both explicit bias and the impact of bias may in fact be harmful to the fight for equality”.)
● https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/making-people-aware-of-their-implicit-biases-doesnt-usually-change-minds-but-heres-what-does-work (See section on discretion elimination particularly with its implications for assessment of learning)
● NextGenNavigator issue: https://www.nsta.org/blog/social-justice-science-classroom
● In this article in The Boston Globe, author/researcher Linda K. Wertheimer synthesizes insights from scholars and teachers on teaching about racism in secondary schools (these come from the article with only minor changes): https://mailchi.mp/aaas.org/arise-august-newsletter-equity-resources-and-more
○ Things to do:
- Before teaching about race, explore and recognize your own racial and ethnic identity.
- Cast a wide net to develop instructional materials, including resources from Facing History and Ourselves (see link below), Colorful Pages (geared to elementary schools), and university schools of education.
- Help foster a schoolwide culture that supports conversations about race and racism.
- Create a classroom community where students feel comfortable having difficult conversations.
- Set parameters for conversations on race, including a reminder that students should speak only for themselves and not for their entire race or ethnicity.
● Things not to do:
- Don’t share personal opinions. Focus instead on guiding students, using history and facts, to reach their own conclusions about what constitutes racism.
- Don’t use simulations, such as slave auctions, as a teaching tool. They can be traumatic for students of color.
- Don’t ask students of color to share their experiences with racism unless they choose to do so.
- Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, but be sure to own them if they happen.
- Don’t think of race and racism as a topic only for history classes. It can be taught as a part of literature, science, and other subjects.
Wertheimer quotes Hasan Jeffries, an Ohio State University history professor who hosts the Teaching Hard History podcast for Teaching Tolerance, on teaching about racism in mixed-race classrooms: “Most of the white students wind up going through the five stages of grief. It’s denial, anger, sadness, depression, then mad again because they should have known this stuff.” Jeffries suggests that teachers take care that students who are stuck in one of these stages don’t dominate a discussion.
4“Lesson Plans for Racism” by Linda K. Wertheimer in The Boston Globe, August 30, 2020; see also Facing History and Ourselves lesson plans.
Social Media Voices in STEM and Academia
Consider who is represented (and not represented) in your social media feeds. Follow people who share your same values and goals, but whose posts might make you uncomfortable. Reflect on why they make you uncomfortable. Are they calling out behaviors/thoughts/ideas that you hold that you weren’t aware were racist/offensive/hurtful?
Resources for Teaching
● Learning for Justice | Education Resources A wealth of resources for teaching, learning, and self-reflection on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
● Embrace Race Action Guide: 10 tips for teaching and talking to kids about race
● Learning for Justice: Resources about Black Lives Matter
Organized Opportunities for Self Reflection
● The Great Unlearn with Rachel Cargle
● Me and White Supremacy: A 28-Day Challenge to Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor ● Check Your Privilege
Options for Action (aka Homework)
1. Take the Harvard implicit test for bias, then watch Ibram Kendi’s video How to be Anti-racist to explore the concept that there is no such thing as non-racist. We all know someone who says, “I’m not racist.” Having seen this video, what do you think of that statement?
2. Take the Harvard implicit test for bias, then watch Emmanual Acho’s video Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man. Discuss the video with a partner. What did you learn that was new?
3. To think about how NSTA might unintentionally be replicating white majority values, read one of the 3 articles in the section Systemic Racism in Organizations, and reflect with a partner on how these values do/do not show up at NSTA. What action could we take to change this?
4. Racism in Education Video and Reflection: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q3DvRaKEFVlfjI-BMdRr3hkLPBz2izF0HIV ik9eQLY4/edit?usp=sharing
Presenter:
2014-Present MSTA Member
2015-Present MSTA Presenter
2015 NSTA & Shell Urban Science Educator Development Award
2016 SATP Award Recognition Committee Member
2016 NSTA Grand Prize Shell Science Lab Challenge Winner ($20,000)
2015-Present NSTA Regional & National Conference Presenter
2015-Present Member of Association for Multicultural Science Education (AMSE)-
2019 Appointed to Board of Directors
2016-2019 Appointed to the Shell Teacher of the Year Judging Panel
2016-present eCybermission Virtual Judge
2016 Tomadachi Judging Panel
2016-2018 NSTA Book Reviewer
2016-Present NSTA Article, Blog, Book Writing Contributor
2016 Established Barnes-Conerly STEM Scholarship
2017 Shell Diversity in STEM Steering Committee Member
2017 Member of National Association of Biology Teachers, Society for Science Camp, Public Health, Mississippi Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
2017-Present C-STEM Ambassador
2017- Present Co-chair Judge of Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision
Projects:
2017- MSTA Informal Science Educator Award Recipient
2017 Mississippi Department of Education Science, Early Childhood and Administration Offices of Professional Development, Elementary Education and Reading, and Secondary Education Contractor
2017 Established PUSH 4 Science Educational Services, LLC
2018-Present Flinn Scientific Research Council Member
2019-Present Smithsonian Science Education Center & Shell Oil Company’s STEM Education Summit Mentor
2019 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics & Science National Selection Committee Review Panel Member
2018-Present American Biology Teacher Book Reviewer
2019 Multicultural/Equity in Science Education Volunteer Committee Member
2019 Mississippi Professional Educator's NBCT Diverse Practitioner Scholarship Evaluation Committee Member
2019 NSTA Advocate for the Week
2020 Council for Elementary Science International NSTA Boston Elementary Extravaganza Coordinator
2021 NSTA Engage21 Keynote Speaker
2021 What is Social Justice Teaching in the Science Classroom? Virtual Miniseries Coordinator
GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES of my Committee; The Committee shall review annually all NSTA policies, programs, and activities relating to multicultural and equity issues in science education. The Committee shall work together with other Division Committees on K-16 coordination. Additional charges may be directed by the President, requested by the Board of Directors, or initiated by the Committee and approved by the Board of Directors.