Education Research for

Advancing Critical Consciousness, Equity, and Social Justice in STEM

  • Reframing Access in College Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)

    The ACCESS lab aims to re-frame "access" in undergraduate education by engaging in research that focuses on Advancing Critical Consciousness, Equity, and Social Justice in STEM.

    Access to resources such as books, courses, tutoring, funding, etc., have traditionally been framed as the solution for inequities in STEM education. While access to these and other resources are necessary for students to persist in STEM fields, they are not sufficient because they do not address the exclusionary culture and environments in college STEM. These are significant barriers that keep students from minoritized backgrounds from gaining access to equitable opportunities to engage with STEM and to develop positive STEM identities and goals.

    A holistic framing of access to college STEM involves supporting the development of critically conscious educators who design humanizing and equitable learning environments that facilitate student learning and critical consciousness development, and administrators and policy makers who work to develop justice-centered culture, policies, and institutions.

    Further, all STEM professionals have a responsibility to address injustice in our society, especially those engendered and/or compounded by STEM fields. To that end, STEM students must also develop a critical consciousness by learning about inequities in the field and how STEM has been used as a tool for oppression– and how it could be used as a tool for justice. By developing this critical reflection, they can begin engaging in critical action. At the individual level, they can become change agents in their spheres of influence, and at the collective level, they can engage in wider reform efforts towards equity and justice in STEM and beyond.

a stock image of male professor going over a math problem on a chalk board. Students have their back to the camera and appear to be looking at the board.

Our Research

Our team is interested in various facets of equity and justice in college STEM teaching and learning. We engage in research using critical frameworks and mixed methodologies that explore equity and justice issues—with a focus on racism and sexism— at various levels of the system– from individual and interpersonal to the institutional, cultural, and systemic.

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Our Team

The ACCESS Lab team is comprised of researchers with critical lived experiences in the issues we investigate. The ACCESS Lab also collaborates with other education research groups at UGA and across the country.