Chapter 7: Strengthening STEM Identities: Combatting Curriculum Trauma in African American Students

If you conduct a google search on “what is the heart of the school” the results overwhelmingly favors the library and librarians. In fact, in many schools the library is in the center or a prominent location of the school building. While the library (virtual or physical) is an important and necessary part of every school, the curriculum is a more authentic representation of the heart of the school. Because the ultimate purpose of schooling is to develop an educated population through curriculum content, the curriculum is the most important nonhuman element in schools. It is not only important as a source of knowledge, but it also has the power to shape intellectual and academic identities as well to validate knowledge, nurture images, promote cultures, and reshape worldviews. Linkson (1999) defines worldview as “the way in which various sets of assumptions underlying human existence form a set of beliefs which explain the meaning of life” (p. 43). Therefore, the underlying purpose of the curriculum is to promote a set of beliefs and knowledge deemed as valid and superior to the omitted beliefs and knowledge. In short, the curriculum has the power to determine the current and future pathways of the students that consume it. Thus, it is critically important to deeply analyze the cultural worldview of the curriculum in order to ensure strong academic and intellectual identities for all students who participate in it. In the United States the cultural worldview that develops curricula is White and often male. In fact, Cohen, Spillane, and Peurach (2018) suggests that early public schools (and curricula) were managed by white men from rural backgrounds. While schools are a much more culturally diverse place, the worldview of curricula remains grounded in a White male worldview. Unfortunately, curriculum images, knowledge, and values grounded in a White male worldview often marginalize and disenfranchise the identity of non-White students. In this chapter we explore how the curriculum, and specifically STEM curriculum, marginalizes African American students through the omission of positive images, inventions, and innovations of African American STEM professionals. The underlying supposition of this chapter is that bias causes trauma.