
Impact of Ethnic Studies Courses on the sense of belonging, professional identity, self-efficacy and retention of underrepresented students in STEM
Effective Years: 2019-2023
The project combines a research project aimed at broadening participation in STEM with a detailed professional development plan focused on facilitating the principal investigator's transition from a subject-specific focus on the cellular and network mechanisms of experience-dependent plasticity to a focus on STEM education research. The research project and professional development plan will launch a long-term research program focused on combining quantitative and qualitative approaches to increase recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in STEM. This will be achieved through the development of interventions rooted in robust multivariate statistical methods and a deep understanding of the challenges and barriers these students face, examined through a theoretical lens that combines student-asset models, neurobiology pf learning and memory and critical race theory. The professional development plan includes developing research design skills through focused collaborations, attending quantitative and qualitative research methods summer workshops, auditing/taking courses on qualitative research methods and Critical Race Theory frameworks, and attending conferences that focus on these last two areas as they apply to STEM education research. The outcome of the professional development plan is to enable the principal investigator to complete an innovative research study and develop expertise that will allow her to make significant contributions to the field of STEM education
The research will apply a mixed methods approach to assess the relationship between taking Chicano Studies courses and underrepresented minority (URM) students' sense of belonging, science identity, and self-efficacy, as well as their likelihood to persist in STEM majors until graduation. To achieve this goal, the investigator will complete three objectives: (1) Assess the relationship between taking Chicano Studies courses on the sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and science identity of URM STEM students; (2) Evaluate the impact of taking Chicano Studies courses on the sense of belonging, self-efficacy and science identity of URM students in STEM; and (3) Characterize the reasons why URM students choose to take Chicano Studies courses and the overall impact of these courses on students' experiences. The investigator's long-term research plan focuses on improving outcomes for students of all backgrounds and experiences who are interested in developing careers in STEM. The long-term research agenda includes documenting and characterizing the experiences of STEM students along the academic pathway; identifying, developing, and assessing affordable, scalable, interventions that can have significant impacts on their experiences; and exploring the intersection of biological knowledge and learning with students' cultures.
The project is supported through the EHR Core Research: Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR:BCSER) competition that is designed to build individuals' capacity to carry out high quality fundamental STEM education research in STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.