Advancing STEM Students Competence and Consciousness through Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Pedagogies

This project aims to serve the national interest by examining the characteristics of high-quality, culturally responsive, and sustaining pedagogy (CReSP) in undergraduate STEM courses. Such pedagogy embraces instructional and curricular practices that foster students’ learning, cultural competence, and critical consciousness. Cultural competence and critical consciousness are vitally important for future STEM professionals as they work to solve problems that exist within complex social systems. While CReSP is recognized as a positive force for educating future leaders and researchers, there has been little research to determine the impacts of these approaches in postsecondary education. The project will study both CreSP-based and comparison courses to establish what constitutes culturally responsive and sustaining practices in the classroom, and determine practices that positively impact student outcomes. This project will result in a framework for cross-disciplinary postsecondary STEM teaching designed to engage students with a broad collection of cultures, experiences, and backgrounds. The project’s first objective is to establish what constitutes culturally responsive and sustaining best practices in the classroom. This phase of the project will also assess opportunities for learning in the studied courses. Next, the project will examine the impact of CReSP-based STEM courses on participating students. Specifically, the project will utilize surveys, interviews, course observations, and other data to measure and explore students’: i) identity; ii) cultural competence; and iii) critical consciousness. Project findings will be relevant to faculty and students at HSIs, emerging HSIs, and other institutions looking to make STEM courses relevant and relatable to a breadth of undergraduate students. This project is supported by the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and increase institutional capacity to engage in innovative approaches to improving STEM teaching and learning at HSIs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.