3 Introduction: Challenges with connecting to PEERS

As chemistry in particular and science in general, have evolved over time, there have been many challenges surrounding the promotion of inspiring education in chemistry. Some posing issues surrounding outreach and educational opportunities can include relevance, language and communication, lack of cultural representation⁶. One barrier to PEERS students’ interest and investment in science education includes the systemic erasure and neglect of cultural issues within formal schooling curricula⁷.

Samy Alim et al discuss how in American schooling, issues facing PEERS communities are not included in curricula. With regards to language and communication, researchers have demonstrated the detrimental effects of the enforcement of stereotypes and language-policing for youth of color⁸. In reference to issues of representation, Spencer and colleagues⁹, have discussed how ‘students seeing themselves’ both in educational experiences and materials is integral to their success and persistence of PEERs in science.

For example, there is a need to include the contributions that previous PEERs have made throughout scientific history for current and future PEERs to envision themselves within science. I personally can attest to the lack of gender and cultural representation throughout my studies, and this served as a driving force while developing my project. While this list is extensive there have been successful outreach projects and pedagogies implemented to teach chemistry. I will discuss these in the next section “Background: Previous work that inspired me”