Angela M' ByarsWinston

1
Examining Diversity Within Diversity Retention
of Underrepresented Students in STEM Fields
Presentation to Women in Science Engineering
Leadership Institute February 23, 2006

• Angela M. Byars-Winston
• Department of Counseling Psychology

2
Overview of Presentation

• Introduction
• Discuss conceptual issues in the study of
  cultural diversity factors in STEM retention
• Present data from two studies examining the
  relevance of psychocultural variables to academic
  and career choice variables for ethnically
  diverse and women STEM students

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Three Trends in Research on Underrepresentation
in STEM

• Predominance of group-comparative studies
• Tendency to quantify outcomes (e.g., retention)
  in terms of race and gender
• Study career development of underrepresented
  groups apart from race and gender (i.e., outside
  of context of what it means to be ALANA, female
  or male)

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Shifting the Center Alternate Lens

• Shift from
• How do the STEM interests of ALANA individuals
  differ from those of White individuals?
• To
• What factors influence the origins and
  expression of ALANA groups STEM interests?

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Why study race and gender in STEM retention?

• These factors are consistently 2 of the strongest
  predictors of STEM status
• Importance of linking solid institutional
  research to workforce development

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What enhances STEM achievement and persistence?

• academic and social integration
• knowledge and skill development
• support and motivation
• monitoring and advisement
• (cf. Hrabowski Maton, 1995, 2004)

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What are the challenges to STEM retention?

• Feelings of alienation
• Stereotypes about R/EMs career interests
• Stereotype vulnerability
• Compromised self-perceptions
• Low self-confidence (self-efficacy)

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What accounts for racial and gender inequalities
in STEM outcomes?

• Relationship between racial (and gender) group
  membership and career processes
• (Fouad Byars-Winston, 2004 2005).
• What is truly racial or gendered about career
  development of underrepresented racial groups is
  unknown.

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STEM degree attainment by gender vs race x
gender Implications

• Women earned bachelors degrees the number
  earned by men in biological, social, and
  agricultural sciences (men gt in engineering,
  compu sci physical sci)
• ALANA women earned more degrees than male
  counterparts in physical sciences and science
  technologies (ALANA men gt in engineering or compu
  sci)

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Need Detailed Consideration of ALANA Students
STEM Experience

• Sloan Project (2005 2008) awarded to
  investigate the following research question
• What factors influnece STEM retention for ALANA
  students and how does this vary by
  race/ethnicity, gender, and STEM majors?

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Study 1 Initial Data From Sloan Project

• Purpose To better understand paths through which
  race and gender are associated with STEM-related
  academic and career variables
• SCCT (Lent, Brown, Hackett, 1994 2000)
  academic and career interests, goals, and choices
  develop in part from self-efficacy beliefs and
  outcome expectations.
• Self-efficacy (and interests) predict m/s college
  major, course enrollment intentions, choice
  goals, career consideration, and academic
  performance (Fouad Smith, 1996 Lent et al.,
  2005 Gainor Lent, 1998 Post, Stewart, and
  Smith, 1991).

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Cultural and Contextual Factors in SCCT

• Personal variables like racial development may
  impact career behavior or ALANA groups (Byars
  Hackett, 1998 Hackett Byars, 1996 Lent et
  al., 1994).
• Perceived academic and career barriers (i.e.,
  proximal contextual variables) and perceived
  ability to cope with these barriers also critical
  factors in future intentions and choice behaviors
  for ALANA groups (Fouad Byars-Winston, 2005).

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Contextual Influences (Environmental Supports
Barriers)
Self-efficacy Expectations

• Person Inputs
• Predispositions
• -Gender
• -Race/ethnicity
• -Disability/
• Health status

Sources of Self-Efficacy -Mastery
experiences -Vicarious experiences -Social
persuasion -Physiological emotional states
Interests
Goals
Actions
Outcome Expectations
Background Contextual Affordances
FIGURE 1 A Simplified Look at the Key Constructs
and Processes in Social Cognitive Career Theory
Note. Adapted from Toward a Unifying Social
Cognitive Theory of Career and Academic Interest,
Choice, and Performance by Lent, Brown, and
Hackett, 1994 by Lent, Brown, and Hackett.
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Method

• Participants preliminary sample (N 56)
• 32 males, 22 females
• 18 - 24 yrs (M 20.29, SD 1.80)
• 18 Southeast Asian (1 Pacific Islander)
• 14 Black or African American
• 9 Latino/as 11 Bicultural 3 Native
  American
• 32 1st/2nd year 17 3rd/4th year 6 5th/6th
  year

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Measures
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Significant Correlations Among Measures

• Perceptions of climate positively correlated with
  STEM interest
• Gender Self-Acceptance positively correlated with
  course confidence (Academic Self-Efficacy)
• Ethnic Identity positively correlated with Gender
  Self-Acceptance

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Implications

• Relation b/t gender self-acceptance and academic
  self-efficacy may indicate one variable that
  accounts for varied impact of classroom climate
  dynamics
• Racial and gender variables may operate as
  cognitive appraisals of racialized and gendered
  experiences that influence how ALANA STEM
  students approach their academic and career
  pursuits
• Future analyses include examination of
  interactions among gender self-acceptance and
  ethnic identity (race x gender x college)

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Study 2

• Purpose To empirically investigate why more
  women are likely to study the biological sciences
  than the physical sciences (National Science
  Foundation, 2002).
• Research question what influence does gender
  identity have on the academic and career choices
  of women in the SME fields?

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Method

• Participants
• Sample of 107 WISE undergraduates with declared
  STEM majors
• Ethnic composition of sample
• White American (n 91) Latina (n 4),
  Black/African American (n 3), Asian Pacific
  Islander (n 1), biracial (n 1)
• Most in 1st (n 40) or 2nd year of college (n
  17) remaining in 3rd, 4th, or 5th year (n 25)

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Measures

• Math/Science Self-Efficacy
• Math/Science Outcome Expecations
• Gender Self-Definition
• Gender Self-Acceptance
• Parental Influence
• Two Dependent variables
• Choice of college major and career choice coded
  for gender traditionality

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Results

• Gender Self-Definition negatively associated with
  math/science self-efficacy beliefs
• Gender Self-Definition positively associated with
  choice of a gender neutral or traditionally
  female college major.

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Implications

• The social and environmental issues for some
  women in point to STEM pursuits as gendered forms
  of experience in which they must negotiate both
  personal notions of being female and others
  reaction to their being female.
• Variables capturing experiences of gender are
  important to understanding womens STEM choice
  behavior.

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Practice Implications

• Discuss origins and functions of worldviews that
  shape clients academic and career-related
  cognitions
• Find culturally relevant ways to build
  confidence/self-efficacy
• Identify coping strategies/skills for managing
  social environments in and outside of classroom

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Summary

• Challenges to operationalizing cultural
  components of career choice and development (what
  variables carry effect of cultural group
  membership to STEM academic and career-related
  processes?)
• Within-group studies that incorporate variables
  related to cultural referent group orientation
  and opportunity structure may advance the field

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Miners Canary

• Research into the STEM practices and cultures of
  educational institutions can benefit all groups,
  not just those groups under-represented in STEM
  fields.
• Research needed in the areas of
• Culture of science
• Individual choices
• Career patterns disaggregated data

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Sloan Project for STEM Retention

• Longitudinal analysis to investigate the
  stability of influences from psychoracial
  variables on academic and career variables
  involved in retention.
• Specifically, for whom are these variables
  salient, how do they contribute to retention, and
  at what point in their STEM academic and career
  development?

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Thank you!

• Email abyars_at_education.wisc.edu
• Project website www.cew.wisc.edu/sloan