Introduction: The Imperative of Equity-Oriented, Discipline-Based STEM Education Research

The science disciplines have played a critical role in shaping the experiences of humans and more-than-humans. However, the STEM fields maintain social inequities that limit the participation and perspectives of racialized people. The long-standing issue of inequity in STEM is due to colonial logics based on racial hierarchy; these have not only shaped the disciplines but also the ways that non-normalized bodies are positioned in relation to STEM education and practice. Addressing these issues in ways that disrupt and rebuild equitable STEM requires research and practices that center the experiences and perspectives of the most marginalized groups. Centering diverse marginalized identities and critical perspectives, the chapters in this volume create openings for valuing diverse bodies and minds in STEM as equitable learners and participants. Together these chapters forward Critical Discipline-Based Education Research (Crit-DBER) as a transdisciplinary, desettling, humanizing, and creative framework to approach research and pedagogy in postsecondary STEM.