To view ebooks, you will need to log in. Staff/Faculty: Use your institutional email address and password - the same information that you would use to log on to your office computer or Office 365 account. Students: Use your Passport information - student ID number and Passport password (default is the two-digit month and two-digit year of your birth).
Gender and STEM: Understanding Segregation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics by
This volume features thirteen original chapters on the causes and consequences of gender segregation in scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematics ("STEM") occupations and fields of study. Although women have made great strides in equalizing access to labor markets and higher education, many STEM fields--particularly in the physical sciences and engineering--remain strongholds of gender segregation in the United States and other reputably gender-progressive societies. Policymakers, business leaders and activists have launched countless initiatives to diversify access to lucrative, high status occupations and ameliorate labor shortages that diminish innovation and competitiveness. Contributors to this volume apply diverse theoretical lenses and methodological approaches to understand the individual, interactional, organizational, and cultural dynamics that drive this segregation in the United States. Results show that the gender composition of scientific and technical fields varies a great deal over time and across organizational contexts and socio-demographic groups defined by race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality. But despite this variability, STEM work and STEM workers are widely presumed to be naturally and inevitably masculine. Research presented here reveals how these stereotypes combine with cultural beliefs about natural and fundamental differences between men and women to produce gendered aspirations and reinforce inequalities in the US scientific and technical workforce.
Community Colleges and STEM: Examining Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minorities by
As United States policymakers and national leaders are increasing their attention to producing workers skilled in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), community colleges are being called on to address persistence of minorities in these disciplines. In this important volume, contributors discuss the role of community colleges in facilitating access and success to racial and ethnic minority students in STEM. Chapters explore how community colleges can and do facilitate the STEM pipeline, as well as the experiences of these students in community college, including how psychological factors, developmental coursework, expertiential learning, and motivation affect student success. Community Colleges and STEM ultimately provides recommendations to help increase retention and persistence. This important book is a crucial resource for higher education institutions and community colleges as they work to advance success among racial and ethnic minorities in STEM education.
Barriers and Opportunities for 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Degrees : Systemic Change to Support Students' Diverse Pathways by
Nearly 40 percent of the students entering 2- and 4-year postsecondary institutions indicated their intention to major in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in 2012. But the barriers to students realizing their ambitions are reflected in the fact that about half of those with the intention to earn a STEM bachelor (TM)s degree and more than two-thirds intending to earn a STEM associate (TM)s degree fail to earn these degrees 4 to 6 years after their initial enrollment. Many of those who do obtain a degree take longer than the advertised length of the programs, thus raising the cost of their education. Are the STEM educational pathways any less efficient than for other fields of study? How might the losses be oestemmed and greater efficiencies realized? These questions and others are at the heart of this study. Barriers and Opportunities for 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Degrees reviews research on the roles that people, processes, and institutions play in 2-and 4-year STEM degree production. This study pays special attention to the factors that influence students (TM) decisions to enter, stay in, or leave STEM majors "quality of instruction, grading policies, course sequences, undergraduate learning environments, student supports, co-curricular activities, students (TM) general academic preparedness and competence in science, family background, and governmental and institutional policies that affect STEM educational pathways. Because many students do not take the traditional 4-year path to a STEM undergraduate degree, Barriers and Opportunities describes several other common pathways and also reviews what happens to those who do not complete the journey to a degree. This book describes the major changes in student demographics; how students, view, value, and utilize programs of higher education; and how institutions can adapt to support successful student outcomes. In doing so, Barriers and Opportunities questions whether definitions and characteristics of what constitutes success in STEM should change. As this book explores these issues, it identifies where further research is needed to build a system that works for all students who aspire to STEM degrees. The conclusions of this report lay out the steps that faculty, STEM departments, colleges and universities, professional societies, and others can take to improve STEM education for all students interested in a STEM degree.
Culturally Responsive Strategies for Reforming STEM Higher Education by
By the end of this decade, the U.S. economy will annually create hundreds of thousands of new jobs requiring a bachelor's degree in STEM fields, particularly computer science. This increasing need for computer scientists, coupled with an inconsistent agenda for managing dramatic shifts in the demographic landscape of higher education, compromises our competitiveness in scientific discovery and innovation. As higher education seeks to address this issue, the need for more culturally responsive approaches to undergraduate STEM teaching also increases. This book uses the power of reflection, storytelling, and data to holistically demonstrate the effectiveness of a novel professional development intervention for STEM faculty - Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM, or TIDES - that significantly increased faculty self-efficacy in implementing culturally responsive pedagogies. In it, the editors combine the authentic voices of authors from multiple institutional contexts and individual worldviews to assimilate and synthesize broad theoretical concepts into practice in usable ways, while also offering concrete applicable examples of strategies and solutions that serve as an important comprehensive reference for all undergraduate educators and administrators. This practical guide provides a durable platform for building capacity in understanding of the cultural complexities and institutional realities of recruiting and retaining diverse students in STEM, particularly the computer sciences.
Broadening Participation in STEM : Effective Methods, Practices, and Programs by
U.S. students exit undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs at alarming rates. Less than 50 percent of the undergraduate students who enter STEM degree programs as aspiring freshmen complete degrees in these areas. This is especially true for minorities, whose departure from STEM degree programs is often twice the rate of others. Broadening Participation in STEM features chapters from developers of high impact educational practices and programs that have been effective at broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in the STEM disciplines. It explores strategies used with special populations of STEM aspirants including minority groups such as African Americans, Latino Americans, and Native Americans; persons from economically disadvantaged background; and persons with disabilities. This volume contributes to national knowledge of best practices in educating underrepresented students aspiring to STEM careers. This book provides campus-based faculty, administrators, and diversity professionals with a guide that can be used to develop programs designed to address specific student success and inclusion goals in STEM programs.
Pathways, Potholes, and the Persistence of Women in Science by
Training for and pursuing a career in science can be treacherous for women; many more begin than ultimately complete at every stage. Characterizing this as a pipeline problem, however, leads to a focus on individual women instead of structural conditions. The goal of the book is to offer an alternative model that better articulates the ideas of agency, constraint, and variability along the path to scientific careers for women. The chapters in this volume apply the metaphor of the road to a variety of fields and moments that are characterized as exits, pathways, and potholes. The scholars featured in this volume engaged purposefully in translation of sociological scholarship on gender, work, and organizations. They focus on the themes that emerge from their scholarship that add to or build on our existing knowledge of scientific work, while identifying tools as well as challenges to diversifying science. This book contains a multitude of insights about navigating the road while training for and building a career in science. Collectively, the chapters exemplify the utility of this approach, provide useful tools, and suggest areas of exploration for those aiming to broaden the participation of women and minorities. Although this book focuses on gendered constraints, we are attentive to fact that gender intersects with other identities, such as race/ethnicity and nativity, both of which influence participation in science. Several chapters in the volume speak clearly to the experience of underrepresented minorities in science and others consider the circumstances and integration of non-U.S. born scientists, referred to in this volume as international scientists. Disaggregating gender deepens our understanding and illustrates how identity shapes the contours of the scientific road.
Multicultural Perspectives in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in Higher Education by
This special issue will make a new contribution to the literature by focusing on multicultural issues within STEM Education. A number of publications have focused on specific populations and the difficult circumstances as well as the opportunities for that specific groups' success. This special issue will take a broader look at the challenges and possibilities when engaging diverse constituencies from a Multicultural perspective. In other words, how are organizations and institutions at the K-12 and Higher Education levels engaging students with diverse social identities?
Below is a selection of specific articles that include information on STEM issues in higher education. You will need to log in to view the articles.