Gendered and Racial Microaggressions in STEM: Definitions, Consequences, and Strategies Urban Elementary School Professionals Can Use to Combat Them

Definition Of Microaggressions

Microaggressions have become a common topic recently in the literature. With the emergence of this topic in educational contexts, teachers and students are becoming more aware of the presence and effects of microaggressions. However, the concept of microaggressions and their harmful effects are not new. Microaggressions was a term created in 1978 by Pierce as a way to define the phenomenon of negative interactions African Americans experienced (Pierce et al., 1978). While initially developed to describe negative interactions related to race, microaggressions can also be related to gender, religious orientation, socioeconomic status, or other components of identity (Sue, 2010). Microaggressions are most commonly verbal; however, they may also take a nonverbal form. Moreover, microaggressions can include both conscious or unconscious exchanges in which a student or group of students is disparaged based on characteristics or membership (Pierce et al., 1978; Sue, 2010). Microaggressions can also be committed by individuals internal and external to a specific group. Researchers have identified three types of microaggressions that occur whenever an aspect of a student’s identity is ridiculed, challenged, invalidated, or dismissed: (1) microinsults, (2) microassaults, (3) microinvalidations (Sue, 2010).