2015 - College Admissions Viewbooks and the Grammar of Gender, Race, and STEM

Attribution: Osei-Kofi, Nana, & Torres, Lisette E.
Researchers: Lisette E. TorresNana Osei-Kofi
University Affiliation: Oregon State University; Iowa State University
Email: Nana.Osei-Kofi@oregonstate.edu
Research Question:
This study aims to critically examine representations of gender, race, and STEM in college admissions viewbooks.
Published: Yes
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Cultural Studies of Science Education
Journal Entry: Vol. 10, Pp. 527-544
Year: 2015
Findings:
  1. Their analysis of viewbooks revealed hyper-gendered and hyper-racialized narratives of identity, place, and belonging.
  2. The common themes among the viewbooks were a White heroic male with superior abilities and dedication to the science and represents the authentic scientists. Women in science, who are depicted as either White or Asian, and typically serve in roles that are supportive to White men. Minority males were shown very little in viewbooks, and when they were shown, they were Asians that were also supportive to White men.
  3. The few exceptions they found to these dominant themes did not challenge the limiting racialized and gendered depictions of belonging in science.
  4. The only difference that the high and low diversity school’s viewbooks had was that the high diversity schools had greater representation of Asians in STEM images in comparison to the low diversity schools.
  5. The viewbook representations perpetuate an invisibility of women and minorities in STEM.
  6. The viewbooks convey strong messages concerning race, gender, and issues of belonging, hierarchy, power, and privilege in STEM.
Scholarship Types: Journal Article Reporting Empirical ResearchKeywords: CollegeDepictionGenderIntersectionalityRaceSTEMUniversitiesViewbooksRegions: NationalMethodologies: QualitativeResearch Designs: Content AnalysisAnalysis Methods: Analysis of data Sampling Frame:Viewbooks
Sampling Types: Non-Random - PurposiveAnalysis Units: CollegesData Types: Qualitative-Cross Sectional
Data Description:
  • The authors purposefully selected 20 viewbooks from institutions based on their diversity ranking index in the U.S. News and World Report. The sample they selected comprised of the top 10 and bottom 10 institutions in the index. The authors treated the viewbooks as cultural artifacts with a focus on how gender, race, and STEM were constructed and situated in relation to identity, power, privilege, and ideology.
  • The researchers devised 12 broad and layered codes in order to analyze the viewbooks. The codes they used were the following: gendered, racialized, sexualized, classed, in-class, co-curricular, single-group interaction, diverse group interaction, student/student interaction, faculty/student interaction, active, passive. The authors analyzed each coded item using specific theoretical frameworks in an effort to answer different key questions, which in the case of the analysis they share in this article, meant reading the images through the lenses of race critical theories, feminist theories of science, and theories of intersectionality.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:STEM Entrance and Majoring in STEM
Archives: K-16 STEM Abstracts