– The students constructed personal narratives mediated by symbolic cultural systems to make meaning of their experiences, which more often disputed than confirmed the model minority stereotype.
– Eleven students brought up the notion that some Asian students are encouraged to pursue STEM-based fields because the perception is that they will not be successful in other fields, such as English, religion, or history. They discussed being pigeonholed into majoring in STEM in spite of their many diverse life and career interests.
– The experiences of Black and Asian STEM college students overlap significantly, in that both are bound by society’s misrecognition of their race and ability.
– These students were not immune from believing in the stereotypes and biases about their own race, even as they recognized that these stereotypes might be harming them.
– Five students in this study discussed using the MMM and their high achievement in STEM to capitalize on or take advantage of the stereotype.
– South Asian (Indian or Pakistani) students in particular have similar experiences that differ from those of East Asian students. Many women in this sample talked about the salience of skin tone discrimination in their lives and its effects on their academic performance.
Current Selections
ClearThe Burden of Being “Model”: Racialized Experiences of Asian STEM College Students
Deconstructing the Transfer Student Capital: Intersect between Cultural and Social Capital among Female Transfer Students in STEM Fields
This study explored the experiences of female transfer students majoring in STEM areas at a midwestern university by highlighting the role of Transfer Student Capital in their academic and social adjustment. The authors further deconstructed the notion of Transfer Student Capital by looking at how cultural and social capital intersect through the early background influences as well as the pre- and post-transfer experience of female community college transfer students in STEM disciplines. Research questions include (1) How do students describe the early influences regarding people, places, and experiences that influenced their early interests in STEM majors? and (2) How do female transfer students describe their academic pre- and post-transfer process and experiences?
Intersectionality and STEM: The Role of Race and Gender in the Academic Pursuits of African American Women in STEM
What role do the intersection of race and gender play in the academic pursuits of African American women in the STEM field of computing sciences?