UC San Diego

Genetic essentialism is the incorrect belief that “races differ physically, cognitively and behaviorally primarily because they differ in a discrete manner at the genetic level”. It has been studied that current genetics teaching can inadvertently foster the ideals of genetic essentialism. However, educational approaches to change genetics teaching have been extensively used and studied in secondary schools but not undergraduate institutions. Using a mixed methods approach, it was studied how different teaching methods affect students’ understanding of genomics and race in various undergraduate courses that spent significant time on race, human genetic diversity, and the history of scientific racism. From the quantitative instruments it was found that generally all courses reduced students’ genetic essentialism but only in upper-level courses did students fully understand the population genetics that explains why race is a social, not biological, construct. However, from the qualitative responses, there was a category of responses where some students may still hold genetic essentialist beliefs as well as their disagreement with this topic being taught in STEM courses. In conclusion, the data shows that while courses like this work well in reducing genetic essentialism, there are still gaps in student’s understanding and continued work needs to be done to address these confusions through changes in educational practice. These findings will inform anyone hoping to do their part in reducing genetic essentialism through teaching.