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1. Exploring STEM Identity and Belonging in Minoritized Girls at a Summer Camp

   Milton, Saki; Sager, Marc; Walkington, Candace (June 2024, Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2024)

   Lindgren, R; Asino, T I; Kyza, E A; Looi, C K; Keifert, D T; Suárez, E (Ed.)

   This study explores STEM identity among Underrepresented and Underserved Racially and Ethnically Minoritized (UUREM) middle school girls within informal learning settings. Focusing on micro-level interactions, we explored a single-gendered STEM summer camp where UUREM middle school girls comprised 81% of the participants (N=59). Guided by ecological systems theory as a methodological approach to developing well-designed informal STEM activities, we sought to positively shape UUREM middle school girls’ STEM identity. STEM identity is complex, multi-layered, and inseparable from the intersectionality of their racial and gender identities. This approach is particularly salient in affective factors such as self-efficacy, ability-belief, and a sense of belonging during their pivotal middle school years. Critical implications include (a) single-gender spaces, like STEM camps, provide affirming, safe environments for authentic discussion and belonging in STEM, and (b) role models of similar racial and gender backgrounds support positive STEM identity formation for UUREM middle school girls. 

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2. How do middle school girls of color develop STEM identities? Middle school girls’ participation in science activities and identification with STEM careers

   https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21492  

   Kang, Hosun; Calabrese_Barton, Angela; Tan, Edna; D_Simpkins, Sandra; Rhee, Hyang‐yon; Turner, Chandler (December 2018, Science Education)

   Abstract This study explores ways to support girls of color in forming their senses of selves in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) during the middle school years. Guided by social practice theory, we analyzed a large data set of survey responses (n = 1,821) collected at five middle schools in low‐income communities across four states in the United States. Analyses focus on the extent to which key constructs that inform girls’ development of senses of self and relations among those indicators of STEM identities varied by their race/ethnicity. Though the means of indicators sometimes varied across racial/ethnic groups, multigroup structural equation modeling analyses indicate no significant racial/ethnic differences in the relations of STEM identities, suggesting that similar supports would be equally effective for all girls during the middle school years. Girls’ self‐perception in relation to science was the strongest predictor of their identification with STEM‐related careers, and this self‐perception was positively and distinctively associated with their experiences with science at home, outside of school, and in school science classes. This study argues for strategically expanding girls’ experiences with science acrossmultiplesettings during middle school in a way that increases their positive self‐perception in and with STEM. 

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3. Mentors’ Learning Support Roles and Their Impact On Girls’ Identity Imaginations.

   Thompson, N.; Ju, B.; Nacu, D.; Erete, S.; Pinkard, N. (June 2022, 2021 International Society of the Learning Sciences Annual Meeting)

   Mentoring programs have been intentionally designed to support Black and Latina girls in pursuing STEAM. Here, we examine how the support roles mentors play in an OST STEAM program relate to younger girls’ imaginings of their own identities. Findings from surveys taken by middle-school girls and mentors indicate that by the end of the program year, girls showed more willingness to imagine themselves in various identities, relating to the support roles mentors most often played. 

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4. Understanding Racially Minoritized Girls’ Perceptions of Their STEM Identities, Abilities, and Sense of Belonging in a Summer Camp

   https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13121183  

   Milton, Saki; Sager, Marc T; Walkington, Candace (December 2023, Education Sciences)

   Informal science education researchers have become increasingly interested in how out-of-school spaces that offer STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) programs inform learners’ STEM achievement, interests, and affective outcomes. Studies have found that these spaces can offer critical learning and developmental opportunities for underrepresented racially minoritized (URM) students (Black, Latinx, low socioeconomic status) in STEM subjects. Shifting away from the leaky STEM pipeline analogy, researchers have posited contemporary understandings to explain why the minoritization of URM girls persists. Informal learning environments such as STEM summer camps are being studied to assess how URM girls experience and interact with STEM in novel ways. These environments can inform the research field about how URM girls’ perceptions of their STEM identities, abilities, efficacy, and belonging in STEM develop as they engage in those spaces. This mixed-method study used a multiple-case-study approach to examine how aspects of URM middle school girls’ STEM identities positively changed after participating in a one-week, sleep-away, single-gender STEM summer camp held at a university in the Southwestern U.S. Drawing on intersectionality and STEM identity, we used ecological systems theory to design our research study, examining how URM middle school girls narrate their STEM identities in this informal learning environment. Using quantitative analyses and deductive coding methods, we explored how elements of girls’ STEM identities were shaped during and after their participation in the STEM summer camp. Findings from our study highlight (1) quantitative changes in girl participants’ STEM identities, sense of belonging in STEM, and perceived STEM ability belief, (2) qualitative results supporting our quantitative findings, and (3) how the intersectionality of participants’ race and gender played a role in their STEM identities. This study points to the potential of STEM informal learning camps as a way of developing and fostering URM girls’ STEM identities. 

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5. Enacting Identities: Participatory Design as a Context for Youth to Reflect, Project, and Apply their Emerging Identities

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3311927.3323148  

   Coenraad, Merijke; Palmer, Jen; Franklin, Diana; Weintrop, David (January 2019, Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children)

   Participatory design is an essential design strategy for creating artifacts and experiences that reflect the voices of the population being designed for and with. The participatory design process can serve not only to research resulting artifacts but also as an empowering activity for those who participate. This paper explores how participatory design can serve as a context for young participants to enact and voice their emerging identities and reveals how different participatory design activities have unique affordances for supporting this identity enactment. Focusing on a group of 12 and 13-year-old African American girls, this paper presents a case study showing how participatory design activities served as venues for the girls to reflect characteristics of their current identities, project future identities, and apply aspects of their identities to shape materials for others. In doing so, we contribute a case study showing how participatory design allows participants to enact their identities, helping researchers gain insight into characteristics of those they are designing with and for. This paper advances our understanding of participatory design as a design approach for youth, especially as it relates to issues of broadening participation, identity, and equity. 

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