Towards Justice and Racial Equity in STEM,Education,and Society: Perspectives of Currently and Formerly Incarcerated People Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

This special issue explores the interconnected barriers to equality, peeling back layers of consequences wrought by the identity-based obstacles placed before formerly incarcerated people, limiting their access to STEM education and careers. This issue exemplifies the transformative power of centering the voices of system-impacted scholars—that is, educators, researchers, and advocates who have experienced incarceration—as leaders directly impacted by incarceration and their non-system-impacted research allies capture and critique the systemic barriers within education broadly and in STEM classrooms specifically.