Phillip A. Boda, PhD
Assistant Professor
Director of Curriculum in the School of Public Health
Researcher, Illinois Center of Excellence–Planning a Resilient and Equitable State Using Real-time data (ICE-PRESUR) Team at Discovery Partners Institute (DPI)
Research Fellow, The Gregory S. Fehribach Center
Research Advisor, AAAS’s Entry Point! Program
Pronouns: He/They/Any Pronouns
Contact
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About
I am a Quare scholar with roots to the Coahuiltecan peoples of America subject to Spanish conquest, and subsequent Eastern European settler colonialism.
My work focuses on Inclusion and Measurement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
Phill asks: Who decides what is just? And how do we measure justly?
Service to Community
Led an internationally disseminated webinar on inclusive science education, and critical research for NARST: A global organization for improving science teaching and learning through research: Imagining more inclusive and just futures in science education research, policy, and practice
"This webinar is the second in the newly initiated Presidential webinar series. The series is based on my NARST Presidential theme: Unity and Inclusion for Global Scientific Literacy: Invite as a community. Unite as a community. For this installment, I [NARST President Renee Schwartz] invited critical scholar Dr. Phillip Boda (University of Illinois at Chicago) to coordinate the webinar and continue our conversation about “inclusion” as pertains to science and science education.
Science education research has problematized who has historically been able to participate in the scientific enterprise, who may recognize themselves as scientists, and who can pursue science degrees. Pushing on work exploring science identity, access to general education curriculum, and legally-mandated accommodations, this Presidential webinar brings together a critical panel to discuss what inclusion could mean from outside the field. This panel will also imagine more inclusive and just futures in science education research, policy, and practice by positioning difference as a site of possibility. Attendees will be exposed to theories and methodologies that can be applied to more justice-oriented research and toward the development of more transdisciplinary collaborations."
Notable Honors
2015, Emerging Leader in Education, Phi Delta Kappa
Education
Postdoc - University of Illinois Chicago
Postdoc - The Learning Partnership
Postdoc - University of California, Berkeley
Postdoc - Stanford University
PhD - Teachers College, Columbia University
EdM - Teachers College, Columbia University
BS - Bowling Green State University
Research Currently in Progress
Honoring Heterogeneity when Measuring the Politics of Identity
Phillip A. Boda
University of Illinois Chicago
Abstract
Measuring difference traditionally assumes that schemas developed within a group’s psyche bounded by social constructions of identity are similar. Scholars argue this can and should be estimated in aggregate to explore the role identity has in research design, implementation of design inventions, and ways we evaluate a study’s impact. This argument follows identity politics theories and guides broader psychometric premises that self-selected words (e.g., ‘disabled’, ‘white’, ‘female’) can represent the multi-level, multi-dimensional, and multi-life experiences of humans. Beyond ‘identity politics’ is the frame: The politics of identity. That is, fixed categories are insufficient to aggregate people’s lived experiences, and doing so denies individuals’ opportunities to self-identify. A politics of identity approach argues that groups of people have similar types of experiences and then provides nuance to the way their identities may intersect to create more wholistic set of dimensions for experiences. Most importantly, an engaged politics of identity is concerned with authority, agency, power, and voice. For this manuscript, I honor the heterogeneity in identity measurement by allowing our participants to self-identify the impact of identity from their point of view as a space to explore differential experience as embodied in perceptions of impact from self-report. Using survey data from four different survey studies across space, time, demographics, and disciplinary foci, I explore these results intersectionally to explore this argument’s premise via open-ended responses added to standardized demographics. The implications of this research reflect the pertinent need to move beyond homogeneity in how we view the estimation of survey measurement and the importance of identity nuances.