Welcome to the STEAM Language, Learning, and Identity Lab
The STEAM Language, Learning, and Identity Research Lab at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth examines questions related to equity in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) learning and identity development at the intersection of race, class, gender, language, and culture.
The research lab was founded and is led by Dr. Shakhnoza Kayumova based on her research aimed at improving equitable outcomes among all young people of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and particularly communities and groups who have been historically underrepresented and underserved in STEM disciplines.
We draw on social design experiments, mixed-methods, as well as the participatory and community based research approaches to account for moment-to-moment interactions, processes, resources, tools, roles, and positions young people are given access to participate in STEM, and to understand and re-design learning ecologies that are consequential to diverse learners’ participation, meaning-making, and identity trajectories in relation to STEM domains over time.
Our partnerships with schools, teachers, students, families, and local community members, along with a collaboration with STEM research community, chiefly inform our design, research, and implementation.