Using a STEM Course on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility to Explore Student Reflections on their Socialization into STEM and their Observations of the Figured World of Higher Education STEM Contexts

Science remains an exclusionary field to people who do not align with “acceptable” worldviews (e.g., white, Western, masculine). One avenue for making science more welcoming and inclusive is to empower current science students to become change agents in their fields. However, it is useful to understand where students are starting from before we can empower them as change agents. In the context of a new course focused on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility in science technology engineering and mathematics (STEM), we explore students’ reflections on their socialization into science and observations of the figured worlds of science in their higher education learning spaces. We found that students can recognize and reflect critically on various forms of identity and capital that are involved in and impact their socialization into science. We also found that students can describe, connect, and critique many aspects of the figured worlds of science presented in their higher education learning spaces. Not all students in this study made the same degree of reflections and observations, indicating different levels of preparedness for change agency. Asking students to reflect on their pathways into and experiences of science can also encourage more students to identify, recognize, and push back against inequities in science.