James Holly, Jr. Assistant Professor – Urban STEM Education at Wayne State University gave a keynote talk, Critical Consciousness in Pre-College Engineering Education during the June 23-24, 2021 ASEE Pre-College Engineering Education Conference.

In his keynote, Professor Holly informed the audience that the teaching population in pre-college schools remains essentially the same, predominantly consisting of White middle-class women while the population in the U.S. continues to grow more racially/ethnically diverse. This is a significant problem as current reform efforts neglect the social and political implications latent in traditional educational practice, resulting in more effort to assimilate minoritized students into mainstream culture. Furthermore, student disengagement is increased in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses as few STEM educators receive training on how to enact pedagogical approaches that build upon the cultural wealth of their diverse students. Pre-college engineering education is rife with inequities demarcated along the lines of race, class, gender, and ability. It has yet to disentangle itself from mythic conceptions of objectivity and meritocracy, which devalue the varied expressions of ingenuity demonstrated by the racially and socioeconomically diverse students. Therefore, pre-college engineering educators that desire to be effective must move beyond depoliticized notions of teaching and uncritical notions of diversity to establish affirming educational experiences.  Professor Holly’s keynote talk can be viewed here.