Pedagogy of Healers: STEM+CS Teachers Repairing STEM Identities

Abolitionist dreamers have called for justice-oriented teachers to teach K-12 students with marginalized identities through methods of critical and culturally responsive/sustaining pedagogies (Freire, 1970/2018; Gay, 2018; Ladson-Billings, 1995/2021; Paris & Alim, 2014); acts of love, care, hope, and healing (Ginwright, 2016; Love, 2019); and the humanization of students in STEM spaces (Benjamin, 2019). The dehumanization and silencing of students with marginalized identities in math, science, and computing spaces have resulted in significant harm to their STEM identities (Matthews, 2018; Vakil, 2018; Yeh et al., 2021). Critical and humanizing pedagogy seeks to move away from the practice of having students divest from their culture and assimilate to survive in schools (Salazar, 2013) and computing spaces. Teachers can transform schools and serve to liberate students through acts of love and care, the intentional humanization of students, and the development of social agency toward cultural, social, political, and institutional action for justice.