How Did We Engage Resettled Chin Youth in Critical STEM Literacy Practices?

Abstract

Project RESET engaged resettled Chin refugee teens in critical STEM literacy practices in a community-based afterschool STEM enrichment program in the United States. Over the course of nine months, the participants multimodally and multilinguistically communicated their learning about weather, climate, and climate change, while also developing English proficiency. In this paper, we define critical STEM literacy drawing on current scholarship on critical science literacy and interdisciplinary STEM learning. We then present our four design principles of the learning environment for supporting critical STEM literacy and English learning and share examples from the program that demonstrate how the principles were enacted to engage youth. Drawing on our learning in this work, we will discuss implications for science educators who work with displaced or resettled youth in Asia and the Pacific regions that provide new homes for many displaced children and teens.