Persistent inequalities remain in access and opportunities in STEM for youth from historically marginalized communities. However, with few exceptions, the dominant equity focus has been on supporting individual participation and learning opportunities. This individual focus does not necessarily disrupt systemic injustices and the ways in which systemic forces shape classroom practice.

In this presentation, I draw upon a critical justice perspective and two large studies of teaching and learning STEM in both out-of-school and in schools, to build a case for new tools and approaches that supports and promotes more equitably consequential experiences and outcomes for learners. By equitable I refer to teaching practices that expand opportunities for all youth to engage in STEM in culturally sustaining and rigorous ways. By consequential I suggest that such opportunities also promote transformative outcomes aimed at addressing systemic inequalities and their interactions in classroom practice, such as supporting student agency and disrupting power dynamics in classrooms, STEM and in society.

I will present cases from my collaborative research with teachers and youth in historically marginalized urban communities as we sought to understand and disrupt the political and structural continuities that shape life in classrooms, envision ways to transform them, and the impacts they had on student learning and engagement. In sharing cases I will present both insights and dilemmas regarding what equitably consequential teaching and learning may look like and its possibilities among teachers and students. I also discuss implications of this stance for new approaches to designing for empowering and just learning environments.