Megan Bang
Biographic Data
| ID | 456261 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Megan Bang |
| GIVEN NAMES | Megan |
| FAMILY NAME | Bang |
| SIGNATURE | BANG M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Washington |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7364-469X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 332 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
To heal, grow, and thrive
A focus on positive child development among Indigenous children has largely been absent from developmental science. In this special section of Child Development, we sought to address continuing inequity in representation and valuing Indigenous knowledge and voices by soliciting articles that identified cultural and strengths-based factors Indigenous children, youth, and families cultivate and leverage to promote positive development. In this intr…
Reducing Indigenous suicide
Colonial trauma poses a significant risk to the physical, intellectual, and mental health of Indigenous youth and young adults. Education and mental health scholars are increasingly concerned about the emotional wellbeing of young people, particularly as rates of suicide have increased across the United States. With interest in identifying the unique contextual dynamics involved in understanding Indigenous suicide, this work considers characteris…
World‐Making Through a Feminist Abolitionist Lens in a STEAM Middle School Program
The maker movement propagated throughout educational spaces alongside promises that technological and design literacies could be harnessed to shape equitable social futures. However, researchers have highlighted the ways makerspaces can reinforce hierarchies of race, gender, and class. This paper builds on research that seeks to support girls' making through broader sociopolitical and ethical commitments. We consider what an everyday pedagogy of …
Toward Just and Sustainable Futures
This chapter explores how learning to be in relation is core to human learning. Reductive views of cultural variation and individualized conceptualizations of thriving overlook the processes through which human beings learn to live relationally in ways that support systems transformation and collective well-being. Synthesizing literature on learning and development, we provide a conceptual model that examines four interrelated dimensions of relat…
Undoing human supremacy and white supremacy to transform relationships
Megan Bang (Ojibwe and Italian descent) is a Professor of the Learning Sciences and Psychology at Northwestern University and is currently serving as the Senior Vice President at the Spencer Foundation. Dr. Bang’s research focuses on the complexities of navigating multiple meaning systems in creating and implementing more effective and just learning environments in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics education. Ananda Marin (A…
Hands on
Parent-child communication is a rich, multimodal process. Substantial research has documented the communicative strategies in certain (predominantly White) United States families, yet we know little about these communicative strategies in Native American families. The current study addresses that gap by documenting the verbal and nonverbal behaviors used by parents and their 4-year-old children ( N = 39, 25 boys) across two communities: Menominee…
Waking from Paralysis
Despite decades of climate science research, existing climate actions have had limited impacts on mitigating climate change. Efforts to reduce emissions, for example, have yet to spur sufficient action to reduce the most severe effects of climate change. We draw from our experiences as Ojibwe knowledge holders and community members, scientists, and scholars to demonstrate how the lack of recognition of traditional knowledges (TK) within climate s…
Reimagining American Education
The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial reckoning in the United States make 2021 a potent moment to reimagine American education. This article introduces an ongoing Kappan series in which scholars look ahead to imagine what K-12 education will look like in 25 years. Na’ilah Nasir, Megan Bang, and Hirokazu Yoshikawa discuss some of the factors that have created an environment ripe for transformation and some of their ideas for what…
Multiple Ways of Knowing
Multiple Ways of Knowing * - 1 - Re-Imagining Disciplinary Learning
Learning on the Move Toward Just, Sustainable, and Culturally Thriving Futures
This issue is particularly timely, in its plea to the field to understand that human learning and development have always been on the move—always migrating—even if and when we construct sedentarist bias and territorial boundaries of the nation-state as normative or when we remember or remake as “ambulatory we’s” as we engage in “ongoing re-collection and re-membering of dynamic social and spatial relationships”. As each paper in the issue makes p…
Crossing risky boundaries
“Look It, This is how You Know
This case study focuses on a Native American family's experience on a walk in an urban forest preserve. Drawing on interaction analysis traditions, we analyze video data and transcript data to characterize how learning unfolds in place, in this case an urban forest. We build on this analysis, as well as the work of Indigenous scholars, to theoretically develop walking, reading, and storying land as a methodology for making sense of physical and b…
Articulating the “How,” the “For What,” the “For Whom,” and the “With Whom” in Concert
If Indigenous Peoples Stand with the Sciences, Will Scientists Stand with Us
Indigenous sciences are foundationally based in relationships, reciprocity, and responsibilities. These sciences constitute systems of knowledge developed through distinct perspectives on and practices of knowledge creation and decision-making that not only have the right to be pursued on their own terms but may also be vital in solving critical twenty-first-century challenges. “Science” is often treated as if it were a single entity, free of cul…
Systems of (non-)diversity
Participatory Design Research and Educational Justice
This special issue brings together a set of articles by scholars working to expand equitable forms of learning and teaching that contribute to a socially just democracy—or what we might call “socia...
Community-Based Design Research
The socio-ecological challenges facing communities in the 21st century are building towards a critical conjuncture of history, culture, power, and profound inequity. Scholars working in the service of social transformation and improving the wellbeing of communities are calling for creative, deliberate, and consequential interventions. Tharp & O’Donnell (this issue) call for increased engagement between Cultural-Community Psychology and Cultural-H…
Conceptual Mind
Learning by Observing, Pitching in, and Being in Relations in the Natural World
Nature-culture constructs in science learning
The field of science education has struggled to create robust, meaningful forms of education that effectively engage students from historically non-dominant communities and women. This paper argues that a primary issue underlying this on-going struggle pivots on constructions of nature–culture relations. We take up structuration theory (Giddens, 1984. The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley and Los Angeles, C…
Muskrat theories, tobacco in the streets, and living Chicago as Indigenous land
In this paper, we aim to contribute to ongoing work to uncover the ways in which settler colonialism is entrenched and reified in educational environments and explore lessons learned from an urban Indigenous land-based education project. In this project, we worked to re-center our perceptual habits in Indigenous cosmologies, or land-based perspectives, and came to see land re-becoming itself. Through this recentering, we unearthed some ways in wh…
Who's Asking
Analysis and case studies show that including different orientations toward the natural world makes for more effective scientific practice and science education. The answers to scientific questions depend on who's asking, because the questions asked and the answers sought reflect the cultural values and orientations of the questioner. These values and orientations are most often those of Western science. In Who's Asking?, Douglas Medin and Megan …
Repatriating Indigenous Technologies in an Urban Indian Community
Indigenous people are significantly underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The solution to this problem requires a more robust lens than representation or access alone. Specifically, it will require careful consideration of the ecological contexts of Indigenous school age youth, of which more than 70% live in urban communities (National Urban Indian Family Coalition, 2008). This article reports emergen…
Contents Vol. 55, 2012
Conceptualizing Cultural and Racialized Process in Learning
Research that examines the intersection between culture and learning has constituted a fast-growing field over the last decade [Lee, 2009; Nasir, 2012]. In some of this work inspired by a Vygotskian lens, researchers have focused on the ways that learning is socially and culturally organized and carried out as a part of the daily routine practices of learning settings [Lee & Majors, 2003; Peele-Eady, 2011; Rogoff, 2003; Saxe, 1991]. Such research…
Muskrat theories, tobacco in the streets, and living Chicago as Indigenous land
In this paper, we aim to contribute to ongoing work to uncover the ways in which settler colonialism is entrenched and reified in educational environments and explore lessons learned from an urban Indigenous land-based education project. In this project, we worked to re-center our perceptual habits in Indigenous cosmologies, or land-based perspectives, and came to see land re-becoming itself. Through this recentering, we unearthed some ways in wh…
Cultural processes in science education
Although there has been considerable focus on the underrepresentation of minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and the need for science instruction that fosters diversity, much of the associated effort has focused on the goal of diversity and tended to assume that science and science learning are acultural. We describe a conceptual framework employed in our work with both urban and rural Native America…
Desettling Expectations in Science Education
Calls for the improvement of science education in the USA continue unabated, with particular concern for the quality of learning opportunities for students from historically nondominant communities. Despite many and varied efforts, the field continues to struggle to create robust, meaningful forms of science education. We argue that 'settled expectations' in schooling function to (a) restrict the content and form of science valued and communicate…
Nature-culture constructs in science learning
The field of science education has struggled to create robust, meaningful forms of education that effectively engage students from historically non-dominant communities and women. This paper argues that a primary issue underlying this on-going struggle pivots on constructions of nature–culture relations. We take up structuration theory (Giddens, 1984. The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley and Los Angeles, C…
Learning on the Move Toward Just, Sustainable, and Culturally Thriving Futures
This issue is particularly timely, in its plea to the field to understand that human learning and development have always been on the move—always migrating—even if and when we construct sedentarist bias and territorial boundaries of the nation-state as normative or when we remember or remake as “ambulatory we’s” as we engage in “ongoing re-collection and re-membering of dynamic social and spatial relationships”. As each paper in the issue makes p…
Who's Asking
Analysis and case studies show that including different orientations toward the natural world makes for more effective scientific practice and science education. The answers to scientific questions depend on who's asking, because the questions asked and the answers sought reflect the cultural values and orientations of the questioner. These values and orientations are most often those of Western science. In Who's Asking?, Douglas Medin and Megan …
If Indigenous Peoples Stand with the Sciences, Will Scientists Stand with Us
Indigenous sciences are foundationally based in relationships, reciprocity, and responsibilities. These sciences constitute systems of knowledge developed through distinct perspectives on and practices of knowledge creation and decision-making that not only have the right to be pursued on their own terms but may also be vital in solving critical twenty-first-century challenges. “Science” is often treated as if it were a single entity, free of cul…
Repatriating Indigenous Technologies in an Urban Indian Community
Indigenous people are significantly underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The solution to this problem requires a more robust lens than representation or access alone. Specifically, it will require careful consideration of the ecological contexts of Indigenous school age youth, of which more than 70% live in urban communities (National Urban Indian Family Coalition, 2008). This article reports emergen…
Undoing human supremacy and white supremacy to transform relationships
Megan Bang (Ojibwe and Italian descent) is a Professor of the Learning Sciences and Psychology at Northwestern University and is currently serving as the Senior Vice President at the Spencer Foundation. Dr. Bang’s research focuses on the complexities of navigating multiple meaning systems in creating and implementing more effective and just learning environments in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics education. Ananda Marin (A…
Systems of (non-)diversity
Cultural Differences in Children’s Ecological Reasoning and Psychological Closeness to Nature
In spite of evidence for cultural variation in adult concepts of the biological world (i.e., folkbiological thought), research regarding the influence of culture on children's concepts is mixed, and cultural influences on many aspects of early folkbiological thought remain underexplored. Previous research has shown that there are cultural differences in ecological reasoning and psychological closeness to nature between Menominee Native American a…
Crossing risky boundaries
Reducing Indigenous suicide
Colonial trauma poses a significant risk to the physical, intellectual, and mental health of Indigenous youth and young adults. Education and mental health scholars are increasingly concerned about the emotional wellbeing of young people, particularly as rates of suicide have increased across the United States. With interest in identifying the unique contextual dynamics involved in understanding Indigenous suicide, this work considers characteris…
Hands on
Parent-child communication is a rich, multimodal process. Substantial research has documented the communicative strategies in certain (predominantly White) United States families, yet we know little about these communicative strategies in Native American families. The current study addresses that gap by documenting the verbal and nonverbal behaviors used by parents and their 4-year-old children ( N = 39, 25 boys) across two communities: Menominee…
Waking from Paralysis
Despite decades of climate science research, existing climate actions have had limited impacts on mitigating climate change. Efforts to reduce emissions, for example, have yet to spur sufficient action to reduce the most severe effects of climate change. We draw from our experiences as Ojibwe knowledge holders and community members, scientists, and scholars to demonstrate how the lack of recognition of traditional knowledges (TK) within climate s…
Cultural mosaics and mental models of nature
For much of their history, the relationship between anthropology and psychology has been well captured by Robert Frost's poem, “Mending Wall,” which ends with the ironic line, “good fences make good neighbors.” The congenial fence was that anthropology studied what people think and psychology studied how people think. Recent research, however, shows that content and process cannot be neatly segregated, because cultural differences in what people …
Innovations in Culturally Based Science Education Through Partnerships and Community
Cultural processes in science education
Although there has been considerable focus on the underrepresentation of minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and the need for science instruction that fosters diversity, much of the associated effort has focused on the goal of diversity and tended to assume that science and science learning are acultural. We describe a conceptual framework employed in our work with both urban and rural Native America…
Contents Vol. 55, 2012
Conceptualizing Cultural and Racialized Process in Learning
Research that examines the intersection between culture and learning has constituted a fast-growing field over the last decade [Lee, 2009; Nasir, 2012]. In some of this work inspired by a Vygotskian lens, researchers have focused on the ways that learning is socially and culturally organized and carried out as a part of the daily routine practices of learning settings [Lee & Majors, 2003; Peele-Eady, 2011; Rogoff, 2003; Saxe, 1991]. Such research…
Cultural Differences in Children’s Ecological Reasoning and Psychological Closeness to Nature
In spite of evidence for cultural variation in adult concepts of the biological world (i.e., folkbiological thought), research regarding the influence of culture on children's concepts is mixed, and cultural influences on many aspects of early folkbiological thought remain underexplored. Previous research has shown that there are cultural differences in ecological reasoning and psychological closeness to nature between Menominee Native American a…
Desettling Expectations in Science Education
Calls for the improvement of science education in the USA continue unabated, with particular concern for the quality of learning opportunities for students from historically nondominant communities. Despite many and varied efforts, the field continues to struggle to create robust, meaningful forms of science education. We argue that 'settled expectations' in schooling function to (a) restrict the content and form of science valued and communicate…
Repatriating Indigenous Technologies in an Urban Indian Community
Indigenous people are significantly underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The solution to this problem requires a more robust lens than representation or access alone. Specifically, it will require careful consideration of the ecological contexts of Indigenous school age youth, of which more than 70% live in urban communities (National Urban Indian Family Coalition, 2008). This article reports emergen…
Muskrat theories, tobacco in the streets, and living Chicago as Indigenous land
In this paper, we aim to contribute to ongoing work to uncover the ways in which settler colonialism is entrenched and reified in educational environments and explore lessons learned from an urban Indigenous land-based education project. In this project, we worked to re-center our perceptual habits in Indigenous cosmologies, or land-based perspectives, and came to see land re-becoming itself. Through this recentering, we unearthed some ways in wh…
Who's Asking
Analysis and case studies show that including different orientations toward the natural world makes for more effective scientific practice and science education. The answers to scientific questions depend on who's asking, because the questions asked and the answers sought reflect the cultural values and orientations of the questioner. These values and orientations are most often those of Western science. In Who's Asking?, Douglas Medin and Megan …
Conceptual Mind
Learning by Observing, Pitching in, and Being in Relations in the Natural World
Nature-culture constructs in science learning
The field of science education has struggled to create robust, meaningful forms of education that effectively engage students from historically non-dominant communities and women. This paper argues that a primary issue underlying this on-going struggle pivots on constructions of nature–culture relations. We take up structuration theory (Giddens, 1984. The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration. Berkeley and Los Angeles, C…
Participatory Design Research and Educational Justice
This special issue brings together a set of articles by scholars working to expand equitable forms of learning and teaching that contribute to a socially just democracy—or what we might call “socia...
Community-Based Design Research
The socio-ecological challenges facing communities in the 21st century are building towards a critical conjuncture of history, culture, power, and profound inequity. Scholars working in the service of social transformation and improving the wellbeing of communities are calling for creative, deliberate, and consequential interventions. Tharp & O’Donnell (this issue) call for increased engagement between Cultural-Community Psychology and Cultural-H…
Systems of (non-)diversity
“Look It, This is how You Know
This case study focuses on a Native American family's experience on a walk in an urban forest preserve. Drawing on interaction analysis traditions, we analyze video data and transcript data to characterize how learning unfolds in place, in this case an urban forest. We build on this analysis, as well as the work of Indigenous scholars, to theoretically develop walking, reading, and storying land as a methodology for making sense of physical and b…
Articulating the “How,” the “For What,” the “For Whom,” and the “With Whom” in Concert
If Indigenous Peoples Stand with the Sciences, Will Scientists Stand with Us
Indigenous sciences are foundationally based in relationships, reciprocity, and responsibilities. These sciences constitute systems of knowledge developed through distinct perspectives on and practices of knowledge creation and decision-making that not only have the right to be pursued on their own terms but may also be vital in solving critical twenty-first-century challenges. “Science” is often treated as if it were a single entity, free of cul…
Crossing risky boundaries
Multiple Ways of Knowing
Multiple Ways of Knowing * - 1 - Re-Imagining Disciplinary Learning
Learning on the Move Toward Just, Sustainable, and Culturally Thriving Futures
This issue is particularly timely, in its plea to the field to understand that human learning and development have always been on the move—always migrating—even if and when we construct sedentarist bias and territorial boundaries of the nation-state as normative or when we remember or remake as “ambulatory we’s” as we engage in “ongoing re-collection and re-membering of dynamic social and spatial relationships”. As each paper in the issue makes p…
Reimagining American Education
The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial reckoning in the United States make 2021 a potent moment to reimagine American education. This article introduces an ongoing Kappan series in which scholars look ahead to imagine what K-12 education will look like in 25 years. Na’ilah Nasir, Megan Bang, and Hirokazu Yoshikawa discuss some of the factors that have created an environment ripe for transformation and some of their ideas for what…
Undoing human supremacy and white supremacy to transform relationships
Megan Bang (Ojibwe and Italian descent) is a Professor of the Learning Sciences and Psychology at Northwestern University and is currently serving as the Senior Vice President at the Spencer Foundation. Dr. Bang’s research focuses on the complexities of navigating multiple meaning systems in creating and implementing more effective and just learning environments in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics education. Ananda Marin (A…
Hands on
Parent-child communication is a rich, multimodal process. Substantial research has documented the communicative strategies in certain (predominantly White) United States families, yet we know little about these communicative strategies in Native American families. The current study addresses that gap by documenting the verbal and nonverbal behaviors used by parents and their 4-year-old children ( N = 39, 25 boys) across two communities: Menominee…
Sociology (18 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Epistemology (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Indigenous (8 works) · Pedagogy (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Ecology (7 works) · Environmental Education and Sustainability (7 works) · Environmental ethics (7 works)