“You could like science and not be a science person”: Black girls' negotiation of space and identity in science

Abstract

Building on previous research that has described the underrepresentation of women of color in science fields, this paper presents case studies of Black middle school girls to examine how their science identities developed over space and time. Data were collected over the course of their seventh-grade year in both in school (science classroom) and out-of-school (afterschool club) contexts. The Multidimensionality of Black Girls' STEM Learning framework was used to explore the role of the afterschool club as a counterspace and how students made sense of science, science people, and their current and future selves based on their experiences in school and after school science contexts. All three participants struggled to see their future selves as scientists and made distinctions amongst being a science person, a person who likes science, or a scientist. They also negotiated views of science as active and hands-on in the afterschool setting while experiencing more passive and decontextualized forms of science in the formal school setting. Implications include a need to disrupt the culture of science and reimagine formal science education by learning from out-of-school time science programs that function as counterspaces to support Black girls' science identity. We conclude that there remains a need to draw attention to and understand the role of race and racism in science education so that Black girls' science identities are affirmed beyond counterspaces.

Changing the gendered status quo in engineering? The encouraging and discouraging experiences of young women with engineering aspirations

“…While we initially considered young women's intersectional identities, we found no differences by race/ ethnicity or social class in perceived STEM support nor in the ways in which young women in SWENext were encouraged or discouraged by others. We are aware that young Women of Color often experience multiple forms of discrimination (Crenshaw, 1989;Ong et al, 2020;Wade-Jaimes et al, 2021), however, we did not detect significant differences in the survey results. Yet as the quantitative sample was comprised of mostly White and Asian high school girls and those whose mothers had attained high levels of education, it does not escape us that self-selection into SWENext may already reflect the limited access high school Girls of Color may have to STEM opportunities.…”

“…Our recruitment of study participants was made with the strategic purpose of understanding the experiences of a group of young women who do not resemble ‘typical’ high school girls given their strong engineering commitment. The focus on unique cases or samples, such as ours, is common in mixed‐methods research designs (Onwuegbuzie & Collins, 2007; Teddlie & Yu, 2007) as well as in educational research on the experiences of youth who are underrepresented in STEM (Archer et al, 2017; Tan et al, 2013; Wade‐Jaimes et al, 2021). By centering the experiences of this select group of young women, we can glean how they are particularly encouraged and discouraged, and the extent to which these experiences reflect gendered interactions that effectively maintain (or disrupt) the gender hierarchy.…”

“…To be clear, this group of young women do not represent a “typical” group of high school girls, as the intent of this study is to explore the landscape of experiences of young women who have expressed a strong interest in engineering, and therefore stand as an exception to prevailing gender norms and patterns. Drawing on theories of gender as a social system (Ridgeway & Correll, 2004; Risman, 2004), and supported by empirical research (Robnett, 2016; Wade‐Jaimes et al, 2021), we expect that within their local environments, young women will receive some discouraging and exclusionary messages that reinforce larger social narratives about gender and STEM; yet it is also likely they will receive gender‐inclusive messages in the form of encouragement from others to pursue STEM. In contrast to extant research that tends to focus on one particular source of encouragement or discouragement, our study makes a unique contribution by considering a comprehensive array of the likely actors within young women's local environments, including their parents, teachers, friends, classmates, and peers in STEM clubs.…”

“I Think I Am Getting There” Understanding the Computational Identity of Engineering Students Participating in a Computationally Intensive Thermodynamics Course

“…This would help us understand additional ways that students understand what it means to be “computational” and other ways students may or may not resonate with having a computational identity. For example, recent work suggests that Black women and girls may hold interest in science without developing a science identity, 49 or see computer science as a useful tool without needing to develop a computer science identity to persist in undergraduate computer science programs. 28 Additionally, our interview participants only identified as belonging to a binary gender.…”

Getting to a good place with science instruction: Rethinking an appropriate conception of teaching science

“…Though the range of outcomes certainly includes standardized measures of scientific knowledge, other educational attainment goals such as science course‐taking in secondary school and subsequent performance in higher education science courses, major selection, and trajectory into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers are also highly valued (McGee, 2021; Rodriguez & McGuire, 2019; Sadler & Tai, 2001; Witherspoon et al, 2019). As in education broadly, science learning appears to be quite sensitive to context, and specific desired science outcomes in 1 year may be erased by experiences in subsequent years as the learner moves through different grade levels, teachers, settings, or their own developmental trajectory (e.g., Carlone et al, 2014; Dawson, 2020; Wade‐Jaimes et al, 2021). Other goals, such as individuals’ capacity to understand science or use scientific knowledge to address social issues of importance—sometimes characterized as scientific literacy—are also valued by science educators as well as the wider public (Meehan et al, 2018; Oreskes, 2021; Trefil, 2008).…”