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First-generation college students and those from ethnic groups such as African Americans, Latinx, Native Americans, or Indigenous Peoples in the United States are less likely to pursue STEM-related professions. How might we develop conceptual and methodological approaches to understand instructional differences between various undergraduate STEM programs that contribute to racial and social class disparities in psychological indicators of academic success such as learning orientations and engagement? Within social psychology, research has focused mainly on student-level mechanisms surrounding threat, motivation, and identity. A largely parallel literature in sociology, meanwhile, has taken a more institutional and critical approach to inequalities in STEM education, pointing to the macro level historical, cultural, and structural roots of those inequalities. In this paper, we bridge these two perspectives by focusing on critical faculty and peer instructor development as targets for inclusive STEM education. These practices, especially when deployed together, have the potential to disrupt the unseen but powerful historical forces that perpetuate STEM inequalities, while also positively affecting student-level proximate factors, especially for historically marginalized students.
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Board 295: HSI Planning Project: Integrative Undergraduate STEM Education at Angelo State University (I-USE ASU Grant #2122828)
Historically, women and racial minorities have been underrepresented among the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) workforce. Previous research has identified several factors that contribute to the persistence of minority populations within STEM fields, while other work has identified potential barriers that have influenced these disparities [1-9]. The current study sampled undergraduate students (n=222) from a Hispanic Serving Institute (HSI) in West Texas. Participants were given a survey that explored factors including level of perceived support from family members and friends, level of motivation to pursue a STEM career, and student experiences at the university. Variables of interest focused on sex, ethnicity, and STEM major status. Results and implications are discussed in the following manuscript.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2122828
- PAR ID:
- 10540796
- Publisher / Repository:
- ASEE Conferences
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- HSI women STEM students of color exploratory
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Portland, Oregon
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--46871
