The future of STEM education | Roni Ellington | TEDxBaltimore

hello everybody I can't see you but hello this is called an angry black woman's rant on the future of STEM education for reason so bear with me okay first of all I just want to thank TEDx for feeling that I had some idea worth spreading and when I was preparing for my talk and those who know me know I get really passionate about what I say someone asked me have you ever been told you're an angry black woman I don't think so but and I'm I don't look angry so I really sat and I thought about well that's the perception people have of us those of us who make it despite the odds sometimes we come off a little angry so I just want you to humor me if you hear that just forgive me so I want to put that up front I'm not angry I'm just passionate and when you hear my story you'll see why what I'm talking about really matters to me okay I want to tell my story a little bit they said tell your story so I'm gonna tell my story I grew up in Washington DC a very urban area at the time and throughout my school career I was placed in what you would call load track classes y'all know what I'm talking about load track classes and when I got to the seventh grade it was it was considered junior high at the time and they ranked her as class based on your grades or sections or whatever and I was in 76 now there were only seven sections which meant my section was the one below the last now this is critical because something happened in that class someone realized she shouldn't be here she actually has some talent so we want to move her on up to the east side which was 8:1 now when I went to 8:1 I had access to a different kind of education than I did in seven six particularly the STEM education I received the math teacher that I had we did very rigorous mathematics that was fascinated at the eye dear of expanding a Pascal triangle at assert as a thirteen-year-old and I actually figured it out and I understood it and my teacher said to me she said Ellington you're a genius now I don't know if I really was a genius but something about what she said and something about what I had access to changed the game for me I started to see myself differently just by having an opportunity to engage in rigorous STEM education and let's fast forward my story that's me so I graduated ninth grade I was the third top student in my class fast forward I went to a regular high school Spingarn anybody from DC know where I'm talking about I went to Spingarn senior high school there my father advocated that I took a calculus class that didn't exist so one of the teachers was gracious enough to use their planning period to teach me calculus fast forward I became I was the valedictorian of my class full scholarship to Morgan State University got a master's in mathematics and ultimately a PhD in math education now I don't share that with you you're supposed to clap but I'm not sharing that with you I'm not sharing it to you with you to brag on what I've accomplished but I share that with you because what I study is intimately connected to my experience as an african-american woman that what's happened to be born on the wrong side of the tracks and wasn't predictably to be here okay now you say well Ronnie why are you angry why are you angry you doing something right well what I found once I got to the promised land once I finished my PhD and I was out there trying to make a difference what I saw was very few people that looked like me who had the experiences that I had and they when I talk to people about transforming STEM education most of them could not relate to the experiences of a little black girl that grew up in the basement who is now here now I say that with humility but there's something about having people of diverse back rounds at the table that actually makes the difference I also was curious why was I considered special people would say wow you have an English accent you do math really yeah and I said well what are you talking about you went from DC Spingarn so I was trying to figure out why am i special and what I realized is that there was a perception of STEM disciplines that they were hard and that only the special could make it and it became my life's work even though I'm young yes let's say all our lives um it became my life's work to answer this question what factors impact marginalized and I use marginalizes cold word for poor brown red black urban whatever you want to call it but those of us who normally are not in these disciplines to persist and succeed in these disciplines and careers that became the question that drove much of my work up to this point so my research considers I first started my dissertation I looked at the experience of students who did well in math as math majors and they gave me some interesting insights on the things that they felt made the difference also I looked at not just school practices but also socio-cultural practices that shaped student success in math and STEM disciplines my most recent work is on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning experiences because we believe that if you're solving a real stem problem you cannot do it in a silo you must understand cross-disciplinary applications of ideas so like Ronnie so what well what I came up with was what I call an inclusive framework for STEM education now what these students taught me was that a lot of things were happening in their lives that had them become stem majors do well etc but I think these things should be made explicit when we're teaching like it shouldn't just be a ad-hoc thing we should be deliberate about these different factors the first one and the most important one is that as stem folks anybody out there who does stem work know we are so focused on content sometimes we lose the people for the content I tell people I don't teach math I teach students mathematics the key is students so when we're talking about transforming STEM education we first have to think about how do our practices support stem identity and agency how do we empower students to pursue hard subjects even when things get rough so there's some ideas I have about that the next piece is one of my favorite pieces I think teachers are the saviors of the world and I don't necessarily think they're treated that way I believe that in order for us to have a transformative model of STEM education teachers need to be more than content experts they must be what I call agents of change they must see themselves as viable vehicles for students lives to change and we must train them on what that takes they are more than people that know math and science there are people that will change lives ok the next piece is one of my other favorites is utilizing community social and cultural capital what I found in my research is that when people go into so-called impoverished marginalized neighborhoods they feel as if they're giving them capital versus utilizing the capital that already exists so we have to be deliberate about saying ok these communities have something to contribute to our students progression through the stem pipeline and I think we should be diligent about finding out what that is and utilizing it and then the last piece which I also value is innovative school based practices and you've heard some of those here the robotics the real-world applications having students have access to internships we need to think outside the book and start thinking about what are the kinds of practices and programs that really do foster the rest of these because of time I just talked about identity I would argue if people don't see themselves as stem learners they won't do it no matter how good the curriculum is so we need to say well how are we going to create a curriculum that changes the way a kid sees themselves as Miss Mitchell did for me the next piece is I think we need to start thinking more about transformation and not change meaning we need to really step outside the box and think about what is some of the things that will move our students forward and it got it has to be deliberate this is teachers love you need to see themselves as people who make the difference not just teachers administrators etc and we need to ongoingly provide them the support they need to be those agents and again they're role models in the community some of them we've seen tonight that really can be used to support our efforts in schools we need to break down these barriers that school is here and community is here we are one in trying to move students through the pipeline so you ask Ronnie watch them why not English psychology those are great disciplines but as something about the new the STEM innovations that will actually open doors for students that I believe need to be open for all students not just the ones who came from the right side of the tracks and as I close I want to it's ironic my mother passed away in 1997 the year I got my degree my MA degree she passed away and today is her birthday I just yeah clap for my mama today is her birthday and uh I don't want to choke up cuz I'm you know I got makeup and things but I really want to just acknowledge her publicly because it was her even though she didn't have an education she provided a context for me to have one so I just want to just honor her for a minute to say you know what you did good mom so thank you thanks for giving this one angry black woman an opportunity to say her piece it's really not anger it really is that when I see that table that I showed you I want to see all kinds of people with all kinds of backgrounds being the innovators for tomorrow thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 71,282

Rating: 4.7503629 out of 5

Keywords: ted talks, USA, tedx talk, Roni Ellington, ted talk, tedx talks, ted, ted x, English, TEDxBaltimore 2013, tedx

Id: 7Hb0vkdzaWg

Length: 11min 57sec (717 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 20 2013