The Journey of the Muslimah in Interrogating STEM: A Participatory Action Research with Undergraduate Muslim Women in STEM for Decolonizing STEM Education

Abstract

Women of color in STEM have multifaceted experiences that are often homogenized in the research literature, thus understanding “other modes of being female” is critical for the full participation of women and underrepresented minorities in education in general, and STEM in particular (Zine, 2009; Avraamidou, 2020a, 2020b). To better understand the phenomenon of how Muslim women in the West are navigating STEM spaces from an authentic angle, whilst giving agency and a voice to this marginalized group, I organized a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project (Rodríguez & Brown, 2009). In this three-paper dissertation, I use data collected from Sisters Interrogating STEM (SiSTEM), my ongoing PAR project with four Muslim women in STEM in higher education for the purpose of investigating how they negotiate their intersecting identities. I begin by reviewing relevant frameworks that consider decoloniality and critical-faith epistemologies, followed by a description of the PAR process and why it was the most appropriate methodology to use. Then I present my three papers in the following order: (1) a scoping literature review (co-authored with the PAR team) on how Muslim women in STEM in the West are usually depicted in the literature, (2) an empirical study investigating the ways in which the co-researchers negotiated their Muslimah and STEM identities in a ‘spiritual space’ that PAR facilitated, introducing the idea of identity dials, and (3) a critical autoethnography on how my experiences as a Muslimah in STEM impacted my decisions as the principal investigator of SiSTEM. The overarching question that connects these publishable articles is how has PAR been a transformational and decolonial research and pedagogical method in a) studying and amplifying the voices of Muslim Women in STEM, and b) strengthening the Muslim and STEM identities for these women?