About this session

Thursday, 1:40 PM - 3:10 PM

Finding Spaces in STEM: Leveraging Social Factors, Critical Consciousness and Racialized School Experiences

In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for STEM workers, and simultaneously, persistent disparities in who persists in STEM fields, with White males consistently overrepresented in STEM, while other groups remain marginalized (Pew Research Center, 2021). Importantly, these trends are global (Kramer et al., 2015). This symposium will present findings from research with adolescents in the US and Ghana and emerging adults in the US, that center on how young people find meaning, develop interest and cope in STEM spaces. Paper 1 centers on the importance of critical consciousness, or awareness of social inequality (Freire, 1973), in promoting pathways to STEM careers for youth traditional excluded from STEM, and will present data qualitative findings from a study with Black and Latinx emerging adults in the US, exploring their perceptions of how STEM spaces serve as barriers and facilitators of critical consciousness development. Paper 2 focuses on adolescents in the Southeastern United States, with attention to how racialized school experiences, including classroom racial composition and school racial climate promote STEM belonging and academic coping over three years. Finally, paper 2 centers on a sample of adolescents from Ghana, where struggles to fill STEM positions are particularly dire and women experience high rates of discrimination in STEM (Boateng, 2017). The findings identify key social factors, such as having role models, that promote interest in different STEM careers. Finally, a leading U.K. expert in social-cognitive factors associated with broadening participation in STEM, will facilitate a discussion of the papers.

Paper #1
Title	Critical Consciousness Development in STEM Spaces
Presenting author	Dr. Channing Jamielle Mathews, Ph.D., University of Virginia - Charlottesville, United States

Paper #2
Title	Racialized School Experiences, STEM Class Belonging and Academic Coping: A Longitudinal Study of Adolescents
Presenting author	Fiona Prestemon, North Carolina State University, United States

Paper #3
Title	Factors That Shape STEM Career Interest for Ghanaian Adolescents
Presenting author	Martha Batul, North Carolina State University, United States

View all paper details

Session chair
Kelly Lynn S. Mulvey, Ph.D., North Carolina State University, United States

Discussant
Adam Rutland, Ph.D., University of Exeter, United Kingdom

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