2018 - Developing a STEM Identity Among Young Women: A Social Identity Perspective

Attribution: Kim, Ann Y. ; Sinatra, Gale M.; Seyranian, Viviane
Researchers: Ann Y. KimGale M. SinatraViviane Seyranian
University Affiliation: California State University
Email: ann.kim2@csulb.edu
Research Question:
1. What kind of STEM environments do young women experience in middle school and high school? 2. What efforts have been made to bring about change in the STEM environment young women experience? Have there been efforts to change the prototypes of STEM identity? 3. What implications and recommendations for theory, research, programs, and policy emerge from investigating the literature from a social identity perspective?
Published: Yes
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Review of Educational Research
Journal Entry: Vol. 88, No. 4, pp. 589-625
Year: 2018
Findings:

– The vast majority of the literature reviewed underlined how challenging it was for female students to identify with STEM because the social environment provided a variety of signals that women do not belong to STEM and do not embody STEM prototypes.
– Although boys tended to have higher STEM career interest overall, girls with higher STEM interest and who belonged to a mixed-gender group of friends had the highest STEM career interest scores among their female peers. In contrast, girls who belonged to primarily female friend groups and perceived their friend group to not be supportive of STEM had the lowest STEM career interest scores in the sample.
– Being in a class with more male peers who held these gendered biases negatively predicted intent to major in computer science and engineering. In contrast, being in a class with confident female peers positively predicted intent to major in computer science and engineering.
– Female students rated themselves as having lower abilities than their male counterparts.
– White female students were more likely to major in STEM in college if they felt competent in high school math.
– Young women are operating in an environment where parents, peers, and teachers think and say that they do not belong in STEM and their abilities are challenged even when they are academically successful.
– Young women experience challenges to their participation and inclusion when they are in STEM settings.

Scholarship Types: Journal Article Reporting Review of LiteratureKeywords: FemaleGenderHigh SchoolMiddle SchoolSTEMSTEM IdentityRegions: NationalMethodologies: QualitativeResearch Designs: Literature ReviewAnalysis Methods: Literature Review Sampling Frame:Studies during the middle school and high school years of women’s journeys in STEM
Sampling Types: Non-Random - PurposiveAnalysis Units: Previously Published DocumentsData Types: Qualitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:

The authors employ social identity theory as a guiding framework for understanding how the STEM environment informs female students’ efforts to identify and strive to become a part of the STEM community.

– 47 articles investigating STEM-related psychological experiences of adolescent female student were examined in the current review
– The majority of the studies used quantitative methodology (66%)
– Eleven articles used qualitative methodologies.
-Five studies employed both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses.
– Studies where published 2006 and after.

Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:Gender and STEM; Barriers to STEM
Archives: K-16 STEM Abstracts