A Landscape of How Professionals Identify Themselves in STEM Fields

• In Event: 47.095 - MTCC Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: 47.095-8 - Career Development and Career and Technical Education

Abstract

Professional identity, for many, is a substantial component of their career choices and development (Hoekstra, 2011). In this study, we utilized survey data from 1,867 participants to consider the extent to which an individual working in STEM identify themselves in each discipline and how this may be mediated by one's self-concept, recognition, and sense of belongingness as these factors have been previously established as components influencing one's identity. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that general confidence, STEM confidence, and recognition mediated participants' STEM identity. Sense of belongingness was not a significant mediating factor. The results from this study raise questions as to the possibility (or not) of STEM as an interdisciplinary identity.

Authors

• Jose A. Morales Collazo, Binghamton University - SUNY

• Amber Simpson, Binghamton University - SUNY

• John Zilvinskis, Binghamton University - SUNY

• Adam V. Maltese, Indiana University