Through Theory and Action: Finding Academic Identity and Ontological Security as Faculty of Color in Science Education

Abstract

Science education faculty occupy a unique position allowing us to advocate across multiple stakeholders for all students to access science learning and careers. As an immigrant woman of color entering the tenure track in 2016 whose scholarship centers on this advocacy, I find myself frequently reaching for good and critical theories to grow into an academic increasingly secure in her intellectual positions and pedagogical choices. Framed by the concepts of identity and ontological security, this paper uses counter storytelling to discuss the reciprocity between theoretically informed academic actions and my development of ontological security as a critical academic in science education. The discussion highlights the importance of this reciprocity in enabling my sustained advancement of a critical body of scholarship in research and teaching over time. The relatively positive perspective I discuss juxtaposes against a cross-section of contexts and events with potential to disaffirm my scholarship and right to belong in academia. My hope is academics who share some of my lived experiences use these stories—as I have used the stories shared by others—as one source of support on their journey to finding a secure, unified academic identity; an identity freeing them to engage with stakeholders in ways that affirm the value of their critical scholarship in the academy.