Project Abstract
Each pathway toward the future is made through the actions we take up in the here-and-now. In this project, we consider how the history of anti-Blackness in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) is replicated in the present. STEAM has occupied many people’s imaginaries of progression and the future. Yet, technology is not devoid of values. We wonder: what might change about the future through investigation of the past and action in the present? This gives way to searching for more liberatory uses for technology that do not perpetuate anti-Blackness, but rather help us to envision futures more full of Black Life. One way that we envision the future is through art. Technologies as depicted in art have become realities. STEAM practitioners can help us shift what we imagine for the future through the creation of art. We situate this work within a frame of seeing how Black practitioners think about learning and becoming in STEAM. There has been a call to attend to power and privilege within the Learning Sciences, which opened up further exploration of critical theorist perspectives on learning. One such theory we explore is BlackCrit, which illuminates a specificity to be desired when understanding how anti-Black racism has historically and presently played a role in education, including STEAM.
In this project, we ask 1) What interventions exist in STEAM education that refuse anti-Blackness? 2) What is the role of desire for STEAM practitioners in building futures that support Black Life? and 3) How does a Critical Art & Making workshop and exhibit shift perspectives on the role of STEAM in addressing anti-Blackness? Therefore, to explore our research questions, we engage in multiple methodologies, including autoethnography, interviews, and artifact analysis. Data will include artifacts, interviews, videos, and field notes. After conducting a literature review, the first portion of this work consists of an interview study with Black STEAM practitioners, investigating questions of desire, Black Life, and their current STEAM practices. The second portion of this work invites STEAM practitioners to participate in a critical art and making workshop where they will produce artifacts linking the relationship between their practice and Black Life. This culminates with a public-facing exhibit, highlighting the artifacts produced and inviting the community to offer reflections on what they inspired, challenged, or experienced after visiting the exhibit. Using BlackCrit as a primary theoretical framework, we will analyze themes of Black desire, Black Life, and afro-futurism in the data produced by the study. Initial findings from our literature review have shown that anti-Blackness is permeating but not totalizing, and can be measured across different units of analysis. We expect to find connections between the STEAM practitioners’ specific fields and the kinds of desires they explain and the art that they produce. This work contributes to a gap in the literature in learning sciences studying anti-Blackness, STEM, and afro-futurism. The end product of this work will have engaged a community, translated big concepts tangibly, and invited dialogue through articles and zines for academic and public learning.
Investigators
Marcelo Worsley
Marcelo Worsley is a professor of Learning Sciences and Computer Science at Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy and the McCormick School of Engineering. He launched the technological innovations for inclusive learning and teaching (tiilt) lab (tiiilt.org). The goal of his research is to advance society’s understanding of how students learn in complex learning environments by forging new opportunities for using multimodal technology. The use of multimodal technology is two-fold. First, the environments that he studies allow students to experience learning across a range of modalities. Second, he uses multimodal signal processing and artificial intelligence to study how student learning is demonstrated across different modalities and time scales. Furthermore, he endeavors to improve these learning environments by 1) creating multimodal interfaces that promote inclusivity and incorporate machine learning and artificial intelligence and 2) researching pedagogical strategies that foster transfer.
Stephanie Jones
Stephanie T. Jones is a Ph.D. candidate in the Computer Science and Learning Sciences program at Northwestern University. Stephanie’s interests span context and intellectual communities from Black Studies, Education, Computing, and Abolition. Her research interests include intergenerational learning opportunities and the relationships between anti-Blackness, learning, and computing. She is motivated by her own experiences as the only Black graduate of the 2018 class at Villanova University in both Computer and Electrical Engineering. She has been supported by the National GEM Consortium, the National Science Foundation, and the National Society of Black Engineers.