“Moving Beyond Research to Abolish and Replace Harmful Systems: A Response to Zhang and Kuo”

In this response to Zhang and Kuo as part of the special issue Centering Affect and Emotion Toward Justice and Dignity in Science Education, I argue that to truly care for the well‐being of our students, we need to go beyond research: we will need to abolish harmful systems and replace them with systems in which students would not need to “cope”. I argue that the phenomenon of hierarchical status construction amongst students is connected to racism, sexism, ableism, and other dominant systems of oppression. Centering affect and emotion toward justice and dignity in science education would require dismantling and reassembling educational systems with a view towards the thriving of those historically denied access. For that, I argue, we need a major redistribution of decision‐making power.