The simultaneous phenomena of a shortage in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) labor force coupled with the growing Latino population in the U.S. dictates a need for higher education institutions to ensure the success of Latino students in the STEM disciplines. Current trends indicate that Latino males are interested in pursuing a STEM major, but are attaining STEM degrees at low rates. Furthermore, prior research has shown that over half of all STEM degree pursuers change majors within the first two years and that the first few weeks of college are critical for Latino students. As such, this dissertation used a qualitative, phenomenological approach to examine the first-semester lived experience of Latino males in the STEM disciplines using a science identity framework. Overall, this study had five major findings. First, the findings from this study challenged the existing science identity framework by emphasizing competence as opposed to recognition. Second, participants considered the importance of having a supportive scientific community within their first semester. At the same time, they also highlighted the competitiveness and exclusivity of the scientific community as a major factor that drew them into pursuing a STEM major. Third, the high-achieving participants in this study stressed the importance of being innovative, thinking out of the box, and connecting patterns in approaching their subject areas. Fourth, students in this study had to negotiate their science identities with other parts of their identities, such as their racial identities, gender identities, religious identities, creative identities, and musical identities. Finally, participants in this study who were enrolled in a critical thinking seminar developed a thorough understanding about science within a broader context, and gained knowledge about how the scientific community interacts with other industries, such as business, law, and politics. Given these findings, this study expanded, challenged, and added to the existing literature about Latino men in the STEM disciplines. / text

ABSTRACT Providing equitable learning opportunities for all students has been a persistent issue for some time. This is evident by the science achievement gap that still exists between male and female students as well as between White and many non-White student populations (NCES, 2007, 2009, 2009b) and an underrepresentation of female, African-American, Hispanic, and Native Americans in many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related careers (NCES, 2009b). In addition to gender and ethnicity, socioeconomic status and linguistic differences are also factors that can marginalize students in the science classroom. One factor attributed to the achievement gap and low participation in STEM career is equitable access to resources including textbooks, laboratory equipment, qualified science teachers, and type of instruction. Extensive literature supports authentic science as one way of improving science learning. However, the majority of students do not have access to this type of resource. Additionally, extensive literature posits that culturally relevant pedagogy is one way of improving education. This study examines students' participation in an authentic science experience and argues that this is one way of providing culturally relevant pedagogy in science classrooms. The purpose of this study was to better understand how marginalized students were affected by their participation in an authentic science experience, within the context of an algae biofuel project. Accordingly, an interpretivist approach was taken. Data were collected from pre/post surveys and tests, semi-structured interviews, student journals, and classroom observations. Data analysis used a mixed methods approach. The data from this study were analyzed to better understand whether students perceived the experience to be one of authentic science, as well as how students science identities, perceptions about who can do science, attitudes toward science, and learning of science practices were affected by participation in an authentic science experience. Findings indicated that participation in an authentic science experience has a positive effect on science identities, scientist perceptions, science attitudes, and learning of science and is one approach to mitigating the effects of marginalization in the science classroom. Additional findings indicated that a relationship between the authenticity of the experience and the outcomes (science identity, perceptions about who can do science, science attitudes, and learning of science). This study provides empirical evidence to support authentic science learning as a means of improving students' learning, attitudes, and identities with respect to science. This study endorses authentic science experiences for all students, marginalized included. This has implications for how we prepare future and support current science teachers. In addition, this study shows how this model can be used to effectively implement science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

Research on differences in STEM outcomes for females and students of color has been an ongoing educational research imperative, but Latinas continue to be under-represented in high school and college science classes and majors (National Science Foundation, 2011; Riegle-Crumb & King, 2010). The aim of this study was to investigate how Latina adolescents seek to establish themselves as future scientists within their environments and how others help sustain these developing identities. I used a mixed method procedure called an exploratory sequential design that starts with a qualitative stage followed by a quantitative stage (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007). In the qualitative stage, 32 college-aged Latinas in science majors participated in focus groups with an additional 12 in interviews. Using Interactive Qualitative Analysis (Northcutt & McCoy, 2004), eight factors of science identity development were identified: home environment, teacher influences, school experiences, environmental factors, media influences, using your brain, emotions, and career planning. Participants saw the first four factors as drivers of their development, with media as an irregular contributor. These social factors were filtered through the individual factors of using your brain and emotions, with career planning as the outcome. The qualitative results were used to develop a survey given to middle school students in the next stage. The majority of the survey consisted of previously validated scales that corresponded in content to the qualitative factors. One new measure was developed to address science-related experiences. In the quantitative stage, 90 middle school Latinas from two central Texas school districts participated in the survey study. Univariate analysis showed differences in science-related experiences by demographic variables of parent occupation, parent nativity, first language spoken, and school district. Multivariate regression analysis found positive emotions about science to be the best predictor of science career related outcomes, and that emotions act as a mediator between science experiences and career outcomes. These results are discussed in light of current career theories. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2392. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-192).

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One of the earliest indications that a student may be interested in STEM paths is the students’ own self-efficacy for science as well as how they may see themselves in a STEM career as part of their science self-identity (Schlegel et al., 2019). Currently, there is a need to contribute to research that can assist agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Education and the National Academy of Sciences in advising the nation, including high schools and postsecondary institutions on ways to increase the enrollment of students in STEM-related careers. This study examined the extent to which science self-efficacy and science identity are related to postsecondary STEM degree selection, with special attention to how factors like race, gender, SES status and urbanicity influence science self-efficacy and science identity and how they may be predicative of postsecondary STEM degree selection. Correlation analysis was conducted to quantify the relationship between science identity and STEM degree selection, as well as between science self-efficacy and STEM degree selection. Correlation analysis by subgroup was conducted to examine differences in science identity and science self-efficacy between students based on the demographic characteristics. And binary logistic regression was conducted using the inputs of science identity, science self-efficacy, and demographic characteristics as variants to estimate STEM degree selection. Results of this study suggests that science identity and science self-efficacy are positively correlated with a student selecting a STEM degree. Relationships between science identity and self-efficacy with STEM degree selection among the demographic characteristics was also positively correlated. Black/African Americans and students from the lowest SES both are less likely to select a degree in STEM, while all other demographics show a positive predictive pattern. This work can be used to guide science education policy at the local, state, and national levels, and to direct science education programming in formal and informal settings including those at the high school level in ways to better prepare and encourage students into STEM careers.

Given the concentration of economic growth and power in science fields and the current levels of racial stratification in schooling, this study examined (1) the effects of race on students’ connectedness to science and career aspirations, (2) the extent to which these effects were moderated by school racial composition and racialized tracking, and (3) the differences in modeling effects using separate variables for race and gender (i.e., White, Black, Hispanic, female) versus race/gender (e.g., White female, Black male, etc.). Using the lens of racial formation theory, this study situated access to science knowledge as a racial project, conferring and denying access to resources along racial lines. Reviews of the literature on science self-efficacy, identity, engagement, and career aspirations revealed an under-emphasis on school institutional factors, such as racial composition and racialized tracking (which are important in sociological literature), as shaping student outcomes. The study analyzed data from the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study that surveyed students in 2009 during their freshman year in high school and again in 2012 during most students’ junior year (n = 6,998). Affective ratings (in self-efficacy, identity, engagement) and career aspirations for students measured in 2012 were examined as dependent variables and a variable for racialized tracking was estimated given schools’ placement of students in advanced science coursework in 2012. Although school racial composition was not found to moderate race on outcome effects, primary analyses demonstrated that the presence of racialized tracking in the students’ schools did moderate these effects. Overall these results suggested that the student subgroups most often at a disadvantage compared to White students for the science outcomes studied were Hispanic males and females; Black students’ ratings and aspirations were largely on par or exceeded those of their White counterparts. In addition, results indicated that racialized tracking served to exacerbate gaps for Hispanic students and may also diminish career aspirations for Black students. Finally, while examining effects by race/gender did provide some additional insight and nuance in the interpretation of these results, there were clear instances where these more detailed analyses were not needed or may have obscured results that were clearer when aggregated by race. Given these results, implications for policy, practice, and future research are discussed. / Urban Education

The underrepresentation of women of color in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) remains a critical issue. Uneven academic preparation and lack of interest have been cited as common factors associated with low participation and degree attainment rates among women of color in STEM; however, these factors do not adequately explain why women with academic achievement and interest comparable to their white, male peers pursue and attain STEM degrees at disproportionately low rates. Identity has been found to be a useful lens to understand why and how women of color pursue and attain STEM degrees and subsequent career goals. Viewing the challenges women of color face as a result of being in a "double bind"-both female and non-white -can enable scholars and practitioners alike to better understand how they navigate trajectories towards their career and other personal goals. Specifically, forms of capital that women of color access because of, and not in spite of, their identity have been found to provide means for women of color to successfully achieve their goals. This study uses ethnographic methods to explore the experiences of early-mid career Latina engineers and the forms of capital they have accessed along their trajectories through undergraduate education in engineering and in the early stages of their engineering-related careers. Findings reveal that Latinas draw upon multiple forms of science-related social and cultural capital to overcome obstacles related to being female and non-white in a male-dominated field in a U.S. context. The challenge associated with being a Latina is exacerbated in the workplace where "bro" culture is more pervasive than in college; however, an awareness of one's social identity, the "Americanness" of the gender/race gap in STEM, and a desire to make the field of engineering more welcoming for subsequent generations of women motivates study participants to persist. Specifically, women in this study draw strength from personal or inherited experience of struggle along their trajectories through engineering. They face challenges with an awareness that obstacles are part of any journey and have developed both an ability to transform obstacles into inspiration for working harder and an understanding that overcoming them is crucial both to repaying the debt of sacrifice of those who came before and paving the way for those who will come after. "Struggle" is thus a form of capital that women in my study acquired and is worthy of exploration as a distinct theoretical framework for persistence. Overall, findings from this study bear implications for individual supports and institutional transformation required to foster the success of Latinas in engineering as a distinct group as well as women of color in STEM broadly speaking. / Urban Education

Underserved students attending under-resourced schools experience limited opportunities to engage in advanced science. An exploration into the influence a supplemental science program has on underserved students’ acquisition of science knowledge and skills to increase their pursuit of science was conducted to help explain science identity formation in students. The proliferation of supplemental science programs have emerged as a result of limited exposure and resources in science for underserved students, thus prompting further investigation into the influence supplemental science programs have on underserved students interest and motivation in science, attainment of science knowledge and skills, and confidence in science to promote science identities in students. Using a phenomenological qualitative approach, this study examined science identity formation in high school students participating in a university supplemental environmental health science program. The study explored high school students’ perceptions of their lived experiences in science supplemental activities, research, and field experiences and the influences these experiences have in relation to their science identity development. The university supplemental science program was an eight-week summer program in which students interacted with a diverse group of peers from various high schools, through engaging in environmental health science rotations, field experiences, and research with faculty advisors and graduate student mentors. Data collection included existing program evaluation data including, weekly journals and exit interviews, as well as follow-up interviews conducted several months after the program concluded. The study findings from a three step coding process of the follow-up interview transcripts provided six emerging themes as follows: (1) promoting interest and motivation to pursue new areas of science, (2) mechanisms in the acquisition of science knowledge and skills in scientific practice, (3) confidence in science knowledge and abilities, (4) understanding and applying science in the world, (5) emerging relationships with peers and mentors in science, and (6) aspirations to be a science person in the scientific community. This research study informs other supplemental science programs, has implications for improved science curricula and instruction in K12 schools, as well as explains how exposure to science experiences can help students gain identities in science.