Teaching Equity in Chemistry

Abstract

There is a wide variety of ways for instructors to seek to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and respect (DEIR) in chemistry through their instruction. One way is to talk with students explicitly about equity and injustice in science. We propose a curricular framework for teaching about equity as a way to improve DEIR in science classes at the high school and college levels. The framework has six parts, including expansive framing, buy-in, active and collaborative learning, action, flexible content, and science as a context for learning. We also present the Underrepresentation Curriculum as an example of the framework for teaching about equity in science in action. The Underrepresentation Curriculum (underrep.com) is a flexible set of lesson plans that aims to help students learn about and take action to improve equity in science.