Child Maltreatment and Apartheid Schooling:
The Systemic Exclusion of Black Children from Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics (STEM) Education
Franklin University
Child Maltreatment and Apartheid Schooling:
The Systemic Exclusion of Black Children from Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics (STEM) Education
William Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet, “A Rose by any other name would
smell as sweet” …. meaning one can give something any name one wants, it still does not
change what it is. One can call schools with most children representing under-represented
populations, segregated or re-segregated. Whatever label one chooses to use, the condition still
represents the existence of Educational Apartheid in the USA where children experience abuse
through educational neglect. Such conditions serve as deterrents for access to opportunities in STEM
fields. This study concerns an exploration of a presumed relationship between the phenomena of
child maltreatment, apartheid schooling, and STEM education in the United States
Law in the United States defines child abuse and neglect as “the physical or mental
injury, sexual abuse or exploitation, negligent treatment, or maltreatment of a child by a person
who is responsible for the child's welfare, under circumstances which indicate that the child's
health or welfare is harmed or threatened thereby” (Faller, 2014, p185). The concept of neglect,
as referred to in U.S. law, applies to parents or caretakers who deny a child the right to
educational services (Faller, 2014). Educational negligence and malpractice, in theory, refer to
educationalists who demonstrate educational malpractice (Mawdsley, & Cumming, 2008). Fifty
years subsequently the US Supreme Court declared separate but equal fundamentally inequitable.
The court system contends that slight advancement has been made to significant improvement in
America's schools. Moreover, Street deliberates the racial composition of today's schools is in a
condition of de facto apartheid (Street, 2005).
©Frank Silvey Czarny, PhD
Ensuing the release of R. S. Kempe's research recognizing the battered child syndrome
in 1962, the first laws authorizing physicians conveying any recognized cases of child abuse and
neglect were invoked by the U.S. Children's Bureau (Miller-Perrin & Perrin, 2008). Amid 1963
and 1967, all authorities in the United States approved rulings necessitating specific
professionals to register presumed incidents of child maltreatment (Miller-Perrin & Perrin,
2008). Research concerning the enigma of child maltreatment escalated over a period, escorting
more extensive explanations and better mindfulness that many diverse specialists were able to
recognize and relate abuse. The condition gains complexity when the phenomenon of
discrimination is added to the formula (Miller-Perrin & Perrin, 2008).
The etymology or history of apartheid is traced to Afrikaans, and the word means
“separateness” which derives from the Dutch language denoting APART and heid indicating
HOOD (apartheid, 2018). Originally, the word in the 1940’s as an election slogan by the
Afrikaner National Party which supported and institutionalized prevailing racial segregation in
South Africa (apartheid, 2018). In during beginning years of the 21st century, separation is
systemic, taking more subtle forms many times emerging in acts of microaggression in hiring
patterns, public policy, criminal justice laws, and housing patterns. These dynamics influence the
representation of minorities in STEM fields.
Since the 1990s, science education is often called science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics education or STEM education (Holton, 2010). The publication of A Nation at Risk in
1983 attributed the weakness of the U.S. educational system to its failure to identify in a clear and
compelling way the specific objectives for student learning (Holton, 2010). The American
Association for the Advancement of Science, the globe's leading general science society, initiated
Project 2061 in 1985 (Holton, 2010). The explicit aim of the founders of Project 2061
©Frank Silvey Czarny, PhD
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