An official website of the United States government
International faculty have a strong presence in STEM university educational programming. They represent the second largest demographic, after White faculty, among STEM faculty in US universities, the majority of which are from Asian countries such as China, South Korea, and India, surpassing by large margins racially minoritized domestic faculty including Black Americans, Latine, Native Americans, Native Pacific Islanders, and Native Alaskans (NSF, 2022). These demographics mirror that of STEM doctoral students with White students occupying the largest share, followed by Asian students (international and domestic). Because of this, the National Science Foundation determined that Black Americans, Latine, Native Americans, Native Pacific Islanders, and Native Alaskans were underrepresented in STEM education and occupations. It should come as no surprise that the majority of these racially minoritized students engage in cross-cultural mentoring. While much attention has been devoted to cross-cultural mentoring with White faculty, less has been paid to cross-cultural mentoring with international faculty. International faculty, especially Asian, often occupy a peculiar space as they are often viewed through the model minority lens while also being cast as sufficiently different based on white hegemonic norms (Author, 2021). They are subjected to acceptance for their presumed STEM gifts and talents on one hand, while on the other hand being subjected to marginalization emanating from their home language, accents, and culture (Herget, 2016). International faculty may face isolation and bias in ways similar to their racially minoritized students. Literature is relatively silent on international faculty's doctoral mentoring perceptions and if shared experiences of marginalization are leveraged to enhance the quality of cross-cultural doctoral mentorships between international faculty and Black and Brown students and This paper explores the perceptions of mentoring of international STEM doctoral faculty at three US universities in the southeast. Data were extracted from a larger multiple embedded qualitative case study (Yin, 2018) utilizing interviews with 18 international faculty from three US institutions in the southeast and a survey. Constant comparative inductive analysis was employed to develop findings. The findings suggest that international faculty often share cultural attitudes not much different than their White faculty counterparts, attitudes that reflect anti-Black racism (Gordon, 1995; Dumas & ross, 2016). The findings also reveal an assumption of science neutrality, lacking criticality in understanding science from broader epistemological foundations. Finally, the findings indicate that pragmatic concerns are prioritized over sociocultural and sociopolitical ones that may impact US racially minoritized doctoral students, resulting in international faculty failing to appreciate how their experiences of marginalization can result in empathic connections to their marginalized students. The implications implore STEM education to reimagine STEM doctoral education and mentoring as "holistic and embedded in and accountable to cultural imperatives" (Author, 2022). International faculty should become more aware of ways in which implicit bias fueled by anti-Black racism negatively impacts their Black and Brown doctoral mentees. STEM faculty development education should consider ways to assist international faculty with better connecting with racially minoritized and marginalized students to improve the cross-cultural doctoral mentoring experience.
more »
« less
Lived Experience, Shared Knowledge: Reimagining Community-Driven Science Communication Research
This essay advocates for a transformative, community-centric approach to science communication, promoting inclusivity and recognizing the impact of lived experiences. We challenge the prevalent population-centric approach and underscore the importance of engaging persistently marginalized communities, notably Black Americans. Drawing from health communication literature, we unveil a comprehensive project aimed at understanding Black Americans’ experiences and perspectives on science.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2219604
- PAR ID:
- 10488226
- Publisher / Repository:
- SAGE Publications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Science Communication
- Volume:
- 46
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 1075-5470
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 239-244
- Size(s):
- p. 239-244
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Second-generation black Americans have been inadequately studied in prior quantitative research. The authors seek to ameliorate this research gap by using the Current Population Survey to investigate education and wages among second-generation black Americans with a focus on Nigerian Americans. The latter group has been identified in some qualitative studies as having particularly notable socioeconomic attainments. The results indicate that the educational attainment of second-generation Nigerian Americans exceeds other second-generation black Americans, third- and higher generation African Americans, third- and higher generation whites, second-generation whites, and second-generation Asian Americans. Controlling for age, education, and disability, the wages of second-generation Nigerian Americans have reached parity with those of third- and higher generation whites. The educational attainment of other second-generation black Americans exceeds that of third- and higher generation African Americans but has reached parity with that of third- and higher generation whites only among women. These results indicate significant socioeconomic variation within the African American/black category by gender, ethnicity, and generational status that merits further research.more » « less
-
Gentry, Susan (Ed.)“Making’ - a hands-on practice of creating technology-based artifacts typically involves integrating electronics, programming, or 3D printing. This paper describes the targeted infusion of “making” into undergraduate STEM education as an approach to encourage innovation while building capacity in the 21st-century technical STEM skills of engineering and design. “Making’ has the potential to impact self-efficacy and building capacity in technical STEM skills among underrepresented and underserved science majors. To investigate how “making” experiences are received by Underrepresented Minority (URM) students at an Historically Black College or University (HBCU), we applied and received funding through the National Science Foundation HBCU-UP Targeted Infusion Project (TIP) mechanism. The infusion included “making” instructional practices and Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) into two undergraduate biology courses. Assessment data indicates the targeted - infusion courses were well-received by these communities with females exceling in iteration and communication of engineered designs.more » « less
-
The Language, Culture, and Knowledge-building through Science (LaCuKnoS) project tests and refines a model of science teaching and learning that brings together current research on the role of language in science communication, the role of cultural and community connections in science engagement, and the ways people apply science knowledge to their daily decision making. One key component of the model brings families together as co-learners and co-teachers through family learning experiences. We describe our work to promote more robust family conversations about science in our lives within an existing research practice partnership, using a two-tiered qualitative conversational analysis to compare the family conversations that result from three family engagement models: (a) family science festivals; (b) family science workshops; and (c) family science home learning. More specifically, this paper addresses the question: How do families describe and evaluate science in their lives and communities during family conversations that occur during each of these three engagement models? Discourse analysis using the appraisal dimension of systemic functional linguistics highlights the affective components of families evaluating science in their lives, as well as how each model provided unique affordances for different communicative goals. These findings are used to propose a set of design principles to guide the continued exploration of community-sustaining and family-centric models of family engagement as a key strategy for broadening science participation.more » « less
-
In the U.S., navigating STEM with marginalized identities can affect scientists' communication practices. There is a critical need for science communication training that accounts for the historical oppressions, discriminations, and inequities of marginalized communities. In this paper we analyzed 712 participant responses from ReclaimingSTEM science communication workshops to understand how marginalized scientists' identities influence their science communication practices. We found that participants' experiences of exclusion and hostility in STEM spaces influenced their engagement in science communication. Scientists from marginalized backgrounds aim to change the culture of STEM through their communication efforts to promote a sense of belonging for their communities.more » « less
