Storytelling as praxis: Leveraging a Black woman’s critical autoethnography as a first-generation college student to explore inequities and possibilities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.

Abstract

In this critical autoethnography, I examined my undergraduate experiences as a Black woman and first-generation college student in science and how those experiences led me to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education research as an educational psychologist. Black feminist-womanist storytelling served as the theoretical foundation to challenge deficit approaches to research and depictions of minoritized students. The data collection and analysis procedures entailed collecting artifacts, translating artifacts into a chronological timeline, narrative inquiry and reflective journaling, narrative coding of stories, and weaving theory into the stories. In the findings, I present three narratives that speak to my multiplicative experiences as a Black woman first-generation college student, such as my vulnerability and agency in STEM. Positioned as a testimony, I use my multifaceted experiences to explore inequities within the broader macroview of STEM as a system and rely on the Black church call-and-response tradition to make calls to the STEM community to reimagine inclusion and equity in STEM.