– School science was often hard and discouraging; there were very few science advocates at school or home; and meaningful opportunities to work with real science professionals were scarce, even in schools with science or health academies.
– Students expressed positive attitudes toward science and non-science pursuits where they experienced success and received support from important people in their lives.
– Students who participated in and found solid support for science in multiple communities were more likely to consolidate their science identities and persist in their SEM aspirations, becoming High Achieving Persisters, than students with less breadth and depth of support. They were buoyed by perceived strong and aligned support for their science identities at home, at school, and in extracurricular activities.
– Low Achieving Persisters (mostly low-income females who wanted to become doctors or dentists) described communities of practice with far fewer positive elements and seemed to lack the network of knowledge and contacts, the cultural capital, of the High Achieving Persisters’ families and social class.
– Students who perceived little if any support for their science identities in multiple communities of practice- nearly half the sample- eventually dropped out of the SEM pipeline, becoming the Lost Potentials, despite the fact that most were capable and hard-working. During high school, these mostly middle-class and ethnically diverse students perceived significant challenges in their school communities of practice involving science: teachers they perceived as uncaring or poorly skilled; instruction that failed to help them appreciate the discursive practices of science or the rationale for how science is done; classrooms where they felt they had little voice and no personal connection between the curriculum and their daily lives and dreams; and counseling to avoid ‘‘hard” science courses, from which they inferred that science was not meant for them.
– The fact that the three groups of students were not evenly distributed over the six schools invites future research to investigate the degree to which system-level factors may affect students’ identity development and SEM trajectories.
– Results underscore the key role communities of practice play in career and identity development and suggest a need for interventions to help socializers better understand the value and purpose of science literacy themselves so as to encourage students to appreciate science, be aware of possible career options in science and enjoy learning and doing science.
* What factors cause those who are interested in STEM in 10th grade to lose interest.