Identity Trajectories of Latecomers to Science: Exploring Persistence Through an Ethnographic Multiple Case Study

• In Event: Student Learning Environments

Abstract

This study introduces a new cross-section of students to the research agenda: latecomers to science. Latecomers enter postsecondary science through alternative routes because they are missing prerequisites. They are less likely to graduate than traditional students. This study explores challenges to latecomers’ persistence by mapping 18 latecomers’ identity trajectories, then conducting a sociocultural analysis of three cases. Data includes journals, forums, and interviews. Over 80% of participants were unable to maintain inbound trajectories and over 50% left science in their first year. Latecomers experienced difficulty identifying with science due to a figured world in which legitimate students followed a paradigmatic sequence of courses and achieved good grades. Accordingly they were subjected to low-status positions from which they struggled to persist.

Authors

• Phoebe A. Jackson, McGill University

• Gale A. Seiler, McGill University