Revolutionary STEM Education

Revolutionary STEM Education: Critical-Reality Pedagogy and Social Justice in STEM for Black Males by Jeremiah J. Sims, an educator, researcher, and administrator from Richmond, California, is calling for a revolutionary, paradigm shift in the STEM education of and for Black boys. STEM education has been reliant on axioms and purported facts that for far too long have been delivered in a banking or absorption model that is, arguably, anti-critical. Unsurprisingly, this pedagogical approach to STEM education has failed large segments of students; and, this is especially true of African American males. Revolutionary STEM Education highlights, chronicles, and investigates the potential inroads and vistas of a Saturday Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) program, Male Aptitudes Nurtured for Unlimited Potential (MAN UP), which was designed to foster interest and competence in STEM by middle school Black boys. This program was impelled by a critical-reality based pedagogical approach, which was formulated to arrive at socio-academic synergy, that is, a thoughtful conjoining of students' real life concerns, joys, ways of being, and socio-cultural identities and the curricular material covered in the courses offered at MAN UP. Sims' lived-experiences as an inner-city, low-income Black male are interspersed throughout Revolutionary STEM Education; however, the heartbeat of this book is, undoubtedly, the stories of the positive transformation that the MAN UP scholars experienced while becoming more competent in STEM, developing positive STEM identities, and learning to use their STEM knowledge for social justice.

Jeremiah J. Sims, Director of Equity for the College of San Mateo, was born in Oakland and raised in Richmond, California. As a result of his own life experiences, Jeremiah has devoted his career to the pursuit and ultimate realization of educational equity for hyper-marginalized students. Jeremiah is an alumni of the University of California, Berkeley where he earned a B.A. in rhetoric, with honors, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in education. Jeremiah has contributed to research that details the efficacy of a critical-reality pedagogical approach to STEM education as well as education, writ large.

Preface - Acknowledgements - Do it for the culture - Male aptitudes nurtured for unlimited potential - Cutting straight the truth: Interrogating White supremacist-based racism's role in perceptions of Black maleness - Standing in the gap: Black boys and STEM - Changing the game: The role of critical contextualization and socio-academic synergy in developing STEM identities - Showing out: Developing competencies in STEM and beyond - STEM for good: Creating socio-academic synergy for the development of socially just applications of STEM - Love conquers fear: The efficacy of critical-reality pedagogy at MAN UP - It takes a village: Highlighting the indispensability and strength of the three-fold cord - The revolution will be digitized - Final consideration (Epilogue) - Appendix A: Pre/post identification survey - Appendix B: Manhood survey and rhetorical analysis concept inventory - Appendix C: MAN UP yearend program satisfaction survey (YPSS) - Appendix D: Teacher interview questions - Appendix E: Yearend focus group and individual interview prompts - Index.