Asking Different Questions in STEM Research: Feminist STS Approaches to STEM Pedagogy

Abstract

Using the example of a new pilot curriculum developed at the University of California, Davis Feminist Research Institute, we demonstrate the potential of feminist science & technology studies (FSTS) frameworks to connect the challenges of demographic diversity at the level of the institution with the challenge of epistemological diversity at the level of how we approach research in STEM fields. Dominant ideals of scientific objectivity imply that researchers must leave their personal identities and experiences behind to pursue research. However, most scientists know this is not the lived reality of scientific practice. In reality, researchers cannot help but bring their biases into the lab, and the history of science bears this out (Daston & Galison, 2007;Subramaniam, 2014). A FSTS perspective suggests that institutional change requires structures that promote and reward research that includes the experiences of people historically under-represented in STEM fields, particularly connecting issues of underrepresentation to the production of new scientific discoveries. We argue that the "Asking Different Questions" pilot curriculum illustrates the potential of STEM research training curriculum to utilize theory and analytical tools from FSTS and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies to help people situated in STEM fields to understand the relationship between efforts to bring more diversity into science and the need for new approaches to scientific research.

Culturally Responsive Assessment: Provisional Principles

“…Questions should also be asset‐based to ensure that students have every opportunity to show what they know and can do. The antideficit framework (Harper, 2010) and asking different questions project (Vora et al, 2022) are examples that seek out and validate diverse perspectives; the former through framing questions around what students can do; the latter through recognizing different perspectives (e.g., Roy, 2008). These perspectives are illustrative of recognizing the strength and value in the diversity of students' perspectives, characteristics of the asset‐based principle for culturally relevant assessments.…”