Rethinking “Damage-Centered” Research and Individual Solutions: Cultural Humility as a Framework to Increase Student Diversity in Undergraduate STEM Departments

Abstract

This study examines data from a participatory research action study on the experiences of underrepresented students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields at a small liberal arts college in the United States. Our analysis aims to move away from the framework that students needed to be taught how to cope with and overcome the challenges they faced in their STEM experiences, including racism and sexism. Instead, we propose a stronger focus on how to end racist, sexist, and other forms of discrimination. We draw on the concept of “cultural humility” as a concrete framework that professors, departments, and institutions can use to approach their work of changing practices, policies, and systems. Results discuss specific strategies that educators and institutions can use to promote a cultural humility framework as one way to create anti-oppressive and equitable classrooms, departments, and institutions.

Keywords

• participatory action research
• cultural humility
• stem
• underrepresented groups introduction