Integrating Antiracism, Social Justice, and Equity Themes in a Biochemistry Class

Abstract

A recent push toward addressing antiracism in science reveals a need to integrate discussions of racism, social justice, and equity into undergraduate STEM classes. Toward this end, in Fall 2020, a theme of "Racism is a Public Health Emergency" was incorporated as an overlay for an existing undergraduate biochemistry curriculum. This theme was used throughout the entire semester and involved discussions of racism, social justice, and equity that were directly integrated with the science content of the course. Students enrolled in the class were surveyed at the end of the semester regarding their perceptions of integrating discussions of racism, social justice, and/or equity into chemistry courses. Students indicated that the inclusion of the overlay increased the relevance of the course material, indicated a high level of understanding of the impact of bias and race on the field of biochemistry, and expressed overwhelmingly positive views regarding future inclusion of similar themes of equity and antiracism in chemistry courses. Additionally, student scores and answers on common final exam questions were compared to previous semesters, revealing that the inclusion of this overlay did not negatively impact coverage of biochemistry content.

Using Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Course Content to Improve Outcomes in a Chemistry Course for Nonmajors

“…While the focus of the instrument was to measure changes in student perceptions of science and its accessibility, the survey might benefit from additional questions that ask students about the impact and relevance of DEI content such as case studies vs historical and indigenous perspectives. Science majors likely enter science classes with preconceived opinions on whether DEI content belongs in the classroom, , so these data might be particularly interesting, especially compared to those from nonmajors.…”

“…Therefore, we cannot draw conclusions as to whether a course with diversified content leads to better student outcomes than one without such a framework. While the lack of control group limits the scope of data analysis and discussion, we argue DEI-based practices to be “standard of care”, and a baseline from which, ideally, all chemistry courses should be taught. ,,, Additionally, with a larger sample size, a future goal of this study is to identify how incorporation of DEI-inspired content impacts outcomes of students with marginalized identities within science. The findings of this work likely extend to the chemistry class built for science and engineering majors.…”

“…The findings of this work likely extend to the chemistry class built for science and engineering majors. Moreover, incorporation of DEI content into majors’ classes could be even more important for chemistry majors in particular, who would traditionally be underexposed to such topics inside the chemistry classroom and who do not always recognize the value of a diversified curriculum . Therefore, increasing the incorporation of diversified content into all chemistry courses is an important next step in chemistry pedagogy, in order to further connect science to our students’ everyday experiences, and also to balance the overrepresentation of White, western representations of science.…”

“…Examples of DEI-focused course content within the chemistry classroom are rare but are becoming more common in scientific literature. ,− This paper describes the first iteration of a chemistry course for nonmajors entitled CHM 1030 Chemistry in Society: How Drugs Work, that was intentionally integrated with DEI-based frameworks and content from its inception. Furthermore, the impact of such course design on both science majors and nonmajors is analyzed to determine the impact on student perceptions of the relevance of science to everyday life, the understandability of science, and specific course-related outcomes.…”

Linking Chemistry to Community: Integration of Culturally Responsive Teaching into General Chemistry I Laboratory in a Remote Setting

“…In recent work by Hollond et al, 4 curricular integration ensures that there are (1) discussions of these topics more than once (i.e. topics are covered over multiple weeks or the entire course) and ( 2) course-related content that specifically delves into understanding racism and inequity in science through the lens of the chosen themes.…”