Moving Towards an Inclusive STEM Experience
By: Evan Clark
Tags: Inclusion, LGBTQ, Queer, Biology, STEM

Photo by Philippe Bout on Unsplash

When I walked into my first day in AP Bio, I immediately knew my teacher was gay. Not by his mannerisms or the other students whispering about how they knew, but from the picture of him and his husband hanging on the wall next to my seat.

Surprisingly enough, this was the first openly gay person I had ever met. I grew up and went to school in a fairly conservative town. Coupling that with growing up in a conservative household ensured that I had never had any exposure to any LGBTQIA+ figures.

Having a teacher with whom I could develop some sort of personal connection with was instrumental in helping me identify the feelings I had and come to terms with my own sexuality. As a young man figuring everything out for the first time, this was extremely encouraging and exciting.

The year in AP Bio was a very productive one. Along with teaching the standard curriculum, my teacher also chose to do lessons on the vast sexual diversity in the animal kingdom, the differences between sex and gender, and other topics that all had connections to the LGBTQIA+ culture that my teacher was a part of.

This in-depth look at the connection of STEM topics to critical gender theory and other ‘political topics’ meant a lot to me. It was signaling that my own personal identity had a place in STEM.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Although unique lesson plans were fundamental in changing my perspective, my most important takeaway from AP Bio did not come from some ‘aha moment’ that altered the course of my life. It came from the experience of seeing someone I knew was gay living their life in a day to day fashion. Coming in and witnessing my teacher live a normal life of teaching was profoundly impactful on my view on the LGBTQIA+ community.

Seeing an openly gay man live a normal life broke the preprogrammed notions in my head that people in the LGBTQIA+ community are inherently different. This was a notion imprinted in my head from a young age and simply being in class with an openly gay man for just a year was enough to change that notion. I began to realize that being gay myself did not make me inherently different.

Since realizing these things for myself and reflecting on the importance of visibility in the classroom, I have begun to notice the stark lack of it in many of the classes I have taken since then. I never had another openly gay teacher, I never had another lesson that made an effort to touch upon LGBTQIA+ related topics, and I have never been in a classroom that felt like there was a concerted effort to make LGBTQIA+ students feel welcome.

By comparing my experience in AP Bio to other classes that did not pay as much attention to inclusivity, I have learned a couple more valuable things.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

We Need Consistency

The cultural whiplash that occurs when changing from a class I felt comfortable into a less welcoming one is no small matter. In the US education system, we need a focus not only on inclusivity but also on the larger effort of getting everyone on the same page. Only with inclusivity as a continuous theme through our education system can we truly create the environment we strive for.

We Need Diverse Leaders

My AP Bio teacher was uniquely qualified for, and privy to, the problems LGBTQIA+ students were facing in the classroom and was effective in helping rectify them. In classrooms, we need representation for all sorts of groups of people in teaching positions so we gain the collective knowledge of the unique problems each marginalized group of students faces.

We Need Concrete Approaches for all Roles

Along with our expectations for our leaders of the classroom to be inclusive, we should also hold ourselves to a standard of striving to make a classroom that is welcoming for our fellow students. Over the course of the quarter, the oSTEM @ UCSD Writing Committee will be releasing a few articles that detail some concrete ways in which you as a student, TA, or tutor, can help make your personal classroom as welcoming as possible.