LibGuides: Social Justice in Science: Home

Let's Think About Social Justice in the Sciences

This work aims to open a dialog around equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) concepts, definitions, and examples specifically in science contexts. Each part builds upon the last, in order to break up the concepts into cognitive chunks for easier digestion and to scaffold them from foundational to increasingly complex and nuanced terms. The goals of this work are:

To engage readers in a meaningful and intentional conversation around EDI and ask them to reflect on their own practices
To expose readers to scaffolded social justice concepts as pertinent to serving and teaching people of diverse backgrounds
To demonstrate the relevance of social justice concepts by providing examples of how they intersect with science

This LibGuide is adapted from the 4-part article column series published in the Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship.

Foundational (part one)
Intermediate (part two)
Advanced (part three)
Capstone (part four)

Many thanks to my co-authors: Isabel Altamirano, Samuel Hansen, Nastasha Johnson, and Gr Keer.

References

Bussmann, J. D., Altamirano, I. M., Hansen, S., Johnson, N. E., & Keer, G. (2022). Science librarianship and social Justice: Part four capstone concepts. Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship, 100. https://doi.org/10.29173/istl2697
Bussmann, J. D., Altamirano, I. M., Hansen, S., Johnson, N. E., & Keer, G. (2021). Science librarianship and social justice: Part three advanced concepts. Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship, 97. https://doi.org/10.29173/istl2601
Bussmann, J. D., Altamirano, I. M., Hansen, S., Johnson, N. E., & Keer, G. (2020). Science librarianship and social justice: Part two intermediate concepts. Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship, 95. https://doi.org/10.29173/istl2570
Bussmann, J. D., Altamirano, I. M, Hansen, S., Johnson, N. E., & Keer, G. (2020). Science librarianship and social justice: Part one foundational concepts. Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship, 94. https://doi.org/10.29173/istl62

Resources in the Library

Broadening Participation in STEM by Zayika Wilson-Kennedy (Editor); Goldie S. Byrd (Editor); Eugene Kennedy (Editor); Henry T. Frierson (Editor)
Call Number: ONLINE
Publication Date: 2019
U.S. students exit undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs at alarming rates. Less than 50 percent of the undergraduate students who enter STEM degree programs as aspiring freshmen complete degrees in these areas. This is especially true for minorities, whose departure from STEM degree programs is often twice the rate of others. Broadening Participation in STEM features chapters from developers of high impact educational practices and programs that have been effective at broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in the STEM disciplines. It explores strategies used with special populations of STEM aspirants including minority groups such as African Americans, Latino Americans, and Native Americans; persons from economically disadvantaged background; and persons with disabilities. This volume contributes to national knowledge of best practices in educating underrepresented students aspiring to STEM careers. This book provides campus-based faculty, administrators, and diversity professionals with a guide that can be used to develop programs designed to address specific student success and inclusion goals in STEM programs.
Culturally Responsive Strategies for Reforming STEM Higher Education by Kelly M. Mack (Editor); Kate Winter (Editor); Melissa Soto (Editor)
Call Number: ONLINE
Publication Date: 2019
By the end of this decade, the U.S. economy will annually create hundreds of thousands of new jobs requiring a bachelor's degree in STEM fields, particularly computer science. This increasing need for computer scientists, coupled with an inconsistent agenda for managing dramatic shifts in the demographic landscape of higher education, compromises our competitiveness in scientific discovery and innovation. As higher education seeks to address this issue, the need for more culturally responsive approaches to undergraduate STEM teaching also increases. This book uses the power of reflection, storytelling, and data to holistically demonstrate the effectiveness of a novel professional development intervention for STEM faculty - Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM, or TIDES - that significantly increased faculty self-efficacy in implementing culturally responsive pedagogies. In it, the editors combine the authentic voices of authors from multiple institutional contexts and individual worldviews to assimilate and synthesize broad theoretical concepts into practice in usable ways, while also offering concrete applicable examples of strategies and solutions that serve as an important comprehensive reference for all undergraduate educators and administrators. This practical guide provides a durable platform for building capacity in understanding of the cultural complexities and institutional realities of recruiting and retaining diverse students in STEM, particularly the computer sciences.
Deep Knowledge: Learning to teach science for understanding and equity by Douglas B. Larkin
Call Number: Q181 .L37 2013 (Hayward Book Shelves)
Publication Date: 2013
Deep Knowledge is a book about how people's ideas change as they learn to teach. Using the experiences of six middle and high school student teachers as they learn to teach science in diverse classrooms, Larkin explores how their work changes the way they think about students, society, schools, and science itself. Through engaging case stories, Deep Knowledge challenges some commonly held assumptions about learning to teach and tackles problems inherent in many teacher education programs. This book digs deep into the details of teacher learning in a way seldom attempted in teacher education textbooks.
Equity in Science : Representation, Culture, and the Dynamics of Change in Graduate Education by Posselt, Julie R.
Call Number: ONLINE
Publication Date: 2020
STEM disciplines are believed to be founded on the idea of meritocracy; recognition earned by the value of the data, which is objective. Such disciplinary cultures resist concerns about implicit or structural biases, and yet, year after year, scientists observe persistent gender and racial inequalities in their labs, departments, and programs. In Equity in Science, Julie Posselt makes the case that understanding how field-specific cultures develop is a crucial step for bringing about real change. She does this by examining existing equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts across astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, and psychology. These ethnographic case studies reveal the subtle ways that exclusion and power operate in scientific organizations and, sometimes, within change efforts themselves. Posselt argues that accelerating the movement for inclusion in science requires more effective collaboration across boundaries that typically separate people and scholars―across the social and natural sciences, across the faculty-student-administrator roles, and across race, gender, and other social identities. Ultimately this book is a call for academia to place equal value on expertise, and on those who do the work of cultural translation. Posselt closes with targeted recommendations for individuals, departments, and disciplinary societies for creating systemic, sustainable change.
Navigating Academia: a Guide for Women and Minority STEM Faculty by Pauline Mosley (Editor); S. Keith Hargrove (Editor)
Call Number: ONLINE
Publication Date: 2015
Navigating Academia: A Guide for Women and Minority STEM Faculty explores the infrastructure of the academy and provides a systematic account of where and why women and minorities fall behind men in the preparation for and development of their academic careers. This book offers useful strategies for recruiting, retaining, and advancing women and minorities. Chapters include testimonials from faculty and administrators about how they made their ascent within the academy. Navigating Academia: A Guide for Women and Minority STEM Faculty also discusses how to modify and expand faculty recruiting programs, how to diversify search committees, how to encourage intervention by deans, and how to assess past hiring efforts. This guide is an important resource for women and minorities seeking success in the academy as well as for administrators focused on faculty and professional development. Outlines barriers and challenges that this population is confronted with and provides several solutions and approaches for combating these issues.
How Colleges Change: understanding, leading, and enacting change by Adrianna Kezar
Call Number: Book Shelves LB2341 .K4525 2018
Publication Date: 2018
Joining theory and practice, How Colleges Change unmasks problematic assumptions that university leaders and change agents typically possess, and provides research-based principles for approaching change. Featuring case studies, teaching questions, change tools, and a greater focus on scaling change, this monumental new edition offers updated content and fresh insights into understanding, leading, and enacting change. Recognizing that internal and external conditions shape and frame change processes, Kezar presents an overarching practical toolkit--a framework for analyzing change, as well as a set of theoretical perspectives to apply that framework in order to custom-design a change process, no matter the organizational challenge or context. How Colleges Change is a crucial resource for aspiring and practicing campus leaders, higher education practitioners, scholars, faculty, and staff who want to become agents of change in their own institutions.