Critical STEM Literacy is the idea that students are empowered to take action after learning about and reflecting upon contemporary STEM issues that affect their lives. In democratic STEM classrooms, marginalized students move towards the center and engage in a critical subject agency–becoming subject matter experts who leverage their knowledge for small- and large-scale change. In this way, Critical STEM Literacy is much more than a suite of literacy skills students acquire to engage with complex texts. Critical STEM Literacy means that students are "reading" the entire world through a critical lens, looking for opportunities to leverage their STEM skills to create change, big and small.
This Washington Post article highlights some of the inequities amplified by COVID-19 in American schools. Including:
A study by McKinsey & Co. estimates the shift to remote school in the spring set White students back by one to three months in math, while students of color lost three to five months. As the pandemic persists the losses are escalating.
Millions of children are still learning from home. This setup privileges children who have quiet places to work, parents at home to help and reliable Internet service.
89 percent of Black students have a device for school; still short of the nearly 93 percent of White students who have devices.
These statistics barely scratch the surface, and that is the point. If students do not engage in STEM from a critical perspective or have the opportunity to, they may never understand or believe how the skills of STEM are necessary to address these deep-seated social issues. The ways in which STEM actually exists in the world - the perversion of mathematics to carry out political agendas, the suppression of statistics about environmental racism and public health outcomes when they affect communities of black and brown bodies, the exclusion of non-White people from science and technology companies - is as important to understand as how to balance a chemical equation or find an integral.
This is especially true of Computer Science. We often think of rigorous Computer Science courses as prerequisites for participation in the technology workforce. If underrepresented students can develop computing knowledge, then they might work for Apple or Amazon.
This perspective misses a more important opportunity though. A Computer Science education that also develops a student’s criticality - especially for those students from historically marginalized communities - can be a transformative lever of social change. Computer Science education can serve as a catalyst for social justice.
This year #CSEdWeek embodies critical STEM literacy with the #CSforSocialJustice focus as a part of the #CSforGood movement. Remote learning in COVID classrooms is proving how deep inequality runs in our current technology structure. It is, literally, coded into our digital classrooms. If this generation can learn to code for equity, then future generations may be less disadvantaged by disruptions to our education system. Let’s #STEMTheDivide!