These are dark times for both science and education. The withdrawal or freezing of federal funding, mass firings in federal agencies, total bans on program, activities, and even specific words have already had profound impacts on the institutions where NCSCE participants work. These ruptures, and the dismantling of agencies that provide verified public data in public health, environment, and education, have impacted all educators, but especially those who strive to connect STEM learning to public problems through high impact practices like undergraduate research and experiential or community-based learning.
What can NCSCE do to help our community of educators? As a small, independent non-profit, we are no longer hosted by a larger corporate entity, such as a university, and therefore do not meet the eligibility requirements for the major federal and private grants that built and sustained SENCER and NCSCE. The days when we had a fully staffed DC office, could host large in-person meetings, and disperse NSF subawards are long over. Today, our operating budget is minimal and comes primarily from memberships and programming with provide to a few campus-based initiatives. Our key personnel are all volunteers.
Despite those obvious limitations we continue to advance our mission of engaging learners in STEM by connecting science to civic problems of immediate relevance to them and their communities. We continue to grow our network, and remain a respected and influential presence in the wider STEM education community. We have maintained our websites and resource archives, our e-journal continues to publish issues and will be expanding in the coming year, our practitioners present their work at meetings across the US, the regional centers continue to host conferences, and we are able to run faculty development programs virtually and on campuses, thanks to funded partnerships. However, in this time of crisis, reaction, and the outright suppression of core democratic values, like respect for evidence, inclusion, and equity, we must strive to do more with what resources we DO have, adopting a model of mutual aid.
Things we are doing and will continue to do:
- Provide a “safe space” for educators who know that their commitment to linking science learning to civic engagement and responsibility has always involved teaching “through” hard and challenging topics—public health and health disparities, climate change, environmental degradation, the use and misuse of data etc. These are all topics that, if studied systemically, require both scientific/disciplinary knowledge AND consideration of the causes as well as effects on actual people and communities. These contexts and effects are inevitably unequal, disparate, and contingent, depending on the legal, financial, and cultural power of those affected.
- Use our relationships and connections to national groups (AAAS, NASEM, disciplinary societies and other educational non-profits ) to stay informed and share reports, analysis, and organized efforts that support evidence-based and inclusive STEM education, both in the formal and informal sectors.
- Facilitate community building, and mutual aid, not only among our participants, but with allies, groups, and organizations committed to the reform and improvement of civic engagement, science education, and equity, inclusion and social justice. Our SENCER Summer Institute continues to highlight these commitments and relationships by convening educational leaders and practitioners to share resources, insights, and strategies. (See the 2024 Program)
- Continue our founding mission, which was broadening participation in STEM and supporting lifelong learners who can apply the knowledge, values, and methods of science to the civic challenges facing our local and global communities. In particular, our commitment to inclusive practice has been central to all STEM reform, and to the key “levers of change” in STEM learning, for the last 40 years because it will determine future of both science AND democracy. Our community will not retreat from that commitment . (see current projects here).