Social Justice, Science Agency, and Collaborations: Using Participatory Science to Enhance Learning Outcomes in Postsecondary STEM Courses.

Participatory sciences (any science that depends on the knowledge or involvement of the public) are increasingly being included in undergraduate courses. Although they have most often been integrated into undergraduate courses to engage students, we expand ideas of how these approaches can be used to promote student learning. First, we explore three theoretical frameworks, culturally sustaining pedagogy, control value theory, and the ICAP (Interactive, Constructive, Active, Passive) framework, that help explain why incorporating participatory science is an effective classroom practice at disrupting opportunity hoarding (a fourth framework). These theories focus on motivating learning, illustrating the power of participatory sciences as a mechanism of inclusive science, and attuning pedagogical practices specifically to participatory science curricula. Second, we use these theories to design a model with three orthogonal axes: science agency, breadth of interaction within classes and with external communities, and social justice. This model is designed to be aspirational for instructors to more fully capture how participatory sciences can be used in higher education to maximize instructional goals. We hope to promote reflection among instructors and provide ideas for how they can implement participatory science to expose students to research and use evidence-based reasoning to develop solutions for local and global problems.