Welcome Home: Positive Affective Cultural Experiences and the Proleptic Promise of Belonging in Informal STEM With Black Boys

Abstract

Black boys remain systematically marginalized in STEM education, not only through underrepresentation but through daily experiences of cultural disregard and emotional disconnection. This paper presents the positive affective cultural experiences (PACE) model, a framework that emerged from qualitative research rather than being imposed upon it. Grounded in bell hooks’ concept of homeplace, PACE reimagines STEM learning as a site of belonging where Black boys are affirmed and empowered through trust, care, and adaptability. Drawing from data collected during a 4-week program at a Black Male STEM Animation Lab, the study shows how students’ creative practices, storytelling, and peer mentorship flourished when emotional safety and cultural proximity were prioritized. PACE was derived from the students’ lived interactions, their rhythms of humor, empathy, and collaboration, which revealed affective adaptability as a structural necessity for meaningful engagement. By integrating relational care with technical instruction, PACE challenges monocultural STEM norms and offers a grounded, student-driven model for cultivating joy, resilience, and creative authorship among Black boys. This work calls on educators, designers, and researchers to treat belonging and representation not as extensions of equity, but as the foundation for reimagining STEM through the lived experience of those who have long been excluded from it.