Equity, Empathy, and Experience: A Framework for Centering Inclusivity in an Undergraduate Elementary STEM Educator Course

ABSTRACT Many education scholars emphasize the importance of fostering student belonging in STEM classrooms, which can be facilitated by incorporating inclusive pedagogies into STEM learning. As science and math educators, we see the need to provide preservice teachers with practical frameworks that assist them in creating inclusive spaces in their future STEM classrooms. This paper documents these efforts in an undergraduate elementary STEM education course where a textbook was selected as a practical framework for an equity‐centered STEM lesson assignment. The book selected, Stepping into STEAM, provides three core ideas contributing to inclusive STEM instruction: equity, empathy, and experience. The three core ideas were included in a group lesson planning project, which aimed to incorporate multiple aspects of STEM to create relevant STEM activities. Preservice teacher work will be examined, and suggestions for modifications and future use will be discussed.