94: Enlighten Me on Diversity in STEM - Part 1

Let me start by telling you that this show is many years in the making! Ever since I first met Kate, she and I have shared a passion for social justice, celebrating diversity, and all things education. Today, those three things are colliding as we talk about what Kate has been researching the past few years as she works on her doctorate, specifically looking at diversity in the STEM education fields. No, we’re not talking about stem cell research here… STEM actually refers to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Even if those disciplines don’t appeal to you, Kate is teaching us today why representation matters in all of these fields.

As a high school math teacher, Kate has been an educator for many years now. After an array of experiences at different kinds of schools, she has become passionate about figuring out why STEM teaching tends to be such a field dominated by white males. She actually chose this as her main research topic for her dissertation and is here today to smash some stereotypes and share with us what her research has shown her. In Part 1, you’ll hear us cover things like microagressions, representation, and stereotypes. As you can probably guess, these things have implications that go far beyond STEM - and that’s why research like this is so important!

In Part 2 next week, we’re talking more about Kate’s research findings and how we, no matter what kind of field we work in, can learn from it. I’m so thankful for people like Kate who are doing the behind-the-desk research to solve issues of racial inequality, and I’m also pretty thankful that I get to call Kate a sister and have her on my show before she goes big as a published researcher!

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