| Description: | While Brown v Board of Education determined the segregation of schools to be unconstitutional, segregation still persists in today's school systems, most notably in science. While Black children are legally welcome into these spaces, their culture, their stories and their selves are not welcome. Unless they adopt eurocentric heteronormative perspectives and deny parts of themselves, students of color, especially Black students, are not welcome into science educational spaces nor are they valued. W.E.B. Du Bois is quoted as saying, "one could not be a cool, calm, and detached scientist while Negroes were lynched, murdered, and starved". Many Black students are being intellectually starved through Whites Only curricula. Curricula that esteems and values the accomplishments of White scientists while ignoring or devaluing the contributions of Black scientists. Not only are Black scientists devalued, but Black culture is vilified as it is "lynched" and horribly displayed as uncouth and undignified. This presentation, "Desegregating Science Education", highlights the injustices committed within science classrooms while offering possible solutions to remedy the harm being done in classrooms across the nation. Through discussing educational research and his practices, Taylor will demonstrate the inclusion of Black culture and lived experiences in science curriculum, particularly in biology, and how the resulting joy is not an auxiliary effect but a goal in education. Through this dialogue, we will together work to create classrooms and intellectual communities that welcome not only Black bodies into these spaces, but also the rich histories and cultures that birthed them. [FEATURED SPEAKER] |
