An individual's sense of themselves as a "STEM person" is largely formed through recognition feedback. Unfortunately, for many minoritized individuals who engage in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) in formal and informal spaces, this recognition often adheres to long-standing exclusionary expectations of what STEM participation entails and institutionalized stereotypes of what it means to be a STEM person. However, caregivers, who necessarily share cultural backgrounds, norms, and values with their children, can play an important role in recognizing their children's interest and inclination towards STEM in ways that support children's authoring of their STEM identity in the face of these marginalizing discourses. To explore this idea, we conducted phenomenological interviews with STEM students attending a Hispanic-serving university, examining the nature of STEM-related conversations these students had with their parents during childhood. Participant recollections provide evidence of conversational content, contexts, and structures that supported their identification with STEM even when faced with marginalizing experiences. We found that though this phenomenon was recounted across parent profiles, participant narratives also reflected differences in conversation content, context, and structure based on factors associated with STEM
Identity development frameworks provide insight into why and to what extent individuals engage in STEMrelated activities. While studies of "STEM identity" often build off previously validated disciplinary and/or science identity frameworks, quantitative analyses of constructs that specifically measure STEM identity and its antecedents are scarce, making it challenging for researchers or practitioners to apply a measurementbased perspective of participation in opportunities billed as "STEM." In this study, we tested two expanded structural equation models of STEM identity development, building off extensions of science and disciplinary-identity frameworks, that incorporated additional factors relevant to identity development: gender, ethnicity, home science support, parental education, and experiencing science talk in the home.
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