Prof. Hargrave
Professor of Educational Technology and Critical Multicultural
Iowa State University (ISU) College of Engineering
United State
Constance P. Hargrave serves as Associate Dean of Equity and Engagement in the Iowa State University (ISU) College of Engineering and is professor of educational technology and critical multicultural education in the ISU College of Human Sciences. Hargrave is a nationally recognized leader in informal STEM education for precollege Black and Hispanic youth. She is the past director of Iowa State University SCIENCE BOUND (2006-2017), an award- winning comprehensive college preparation program to equip high school students of color to pursue degrees and careers in STEM. Hargrave’s research examines the social, educational, and cultural factors that contribute to student interest, motivation, and persistence to study in STEM fields; her current work examines STEM educational development pathways for Black and Hispanic students. In 2014, The Obama White House Office of Science and Technology Policy named Hargrave a “ a thought leader focused on improving STEM learning and degree completion”; she was recognized for her ability to collaboratively “identify, evaluate and scale innovative ways to improve STEM teaching and learning and broaden STEM degree completion.” Hargrave’s scholarship has been recognized by Excelencia in Education (a leading research, policy and practice organization focused on the expansion of higher education access for Latino students) for its evidence-based practices that accelerate Latino student success in higher education. Hargrave has received more than 65 competitive grants and contracts from federal agencies (including National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy, US Department of State) as well as major STEM corporations and industries to support her scholarship.
Same Principles New Contexts: Counter Space as Emancipating Pedagogy
Education, at its core, is a social process marked by a series of mutual interactions: student – student, instructor – student, instructor – content, student – content. While characteristics of effective instruction are well-documented, their effectiveness often varies based on the social identities of students. The engagement and subsequent performance of students with marginalized social identities is not consistent with students from dominant groups. Students who identify as women or female are marginalized in higher education; and as a result, often do not thrive in the same manner as their male counterparts. In this paper, I present counterspace as an emancipating pedagogy to enhance learning equity in higher education. Anchored in a critical theory framework, counter space provides adjacent locales for the educational empowerment of marginalized students. In the paper, I discuss the need for emancipation, the components required to create counter space, and provide counter space examples.
