STEM Climates for Students With Disabilities

• In Event: 35.039 - Campus Climate and STEM Department Climate Must Be Simultaneously Addressed for Underrepresented Minority (URM) Students to Succeed in STEM

Abstract

Although our empirical knowledge about students with disabilities in higher education has increased recently, these students remain an under-researched population (Kimball, Wells, Lauterbach, Manly, & Ostiguy, 2016; Peña, 2014). Gaps in the literature are especially apparent concerning the experiences of students with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. As students with disabilities receive fewer STEM degrees compared to their peers without disabilities (National Science Foundation [NSF], 2017), even though they express similar levels of interests, it is important to understand the obstacles presented by STEM environments for these students.

Therefore, this systematic literature review of research on students with disabilities in STEM fields has 3 objectives:
Outline the major challenges and obstacles created by STEM classroom environments for students with apparent and non-apparent disabilities;
Identify interventions that can be undertaken by instructors, departments, and institutions;
Identify avenues of future research.

This paper understands the postsecondary experiences of students with disabilities to be structured by ableism. Ableism is an oppressive sociocultural structure which prizes certain bodies and abilities over others, and produces bodies viewed as either abled or disabled, with those viewed as disabled seen as less valuable, inherently damaged, and thus unequal (Campbell, 2009; Hughes, 2007). Understanding STEM climates as inherently ableist means that researchers can unravel the ways that these environments share in the production of disability.

This study is a systematic literature review about students with disabilities in STEM fields (Baumeister, 2013; Baumeister & Leary, 2007). Systematic literature reviews show both scope and depth about a particular area by identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing studies addressing a focused topic (Baumeister & Leary, 2007). The current study focused on literature produced between 2000 and 2018 in peer-reviewed journals or published conference proceedings about students with disabilities and STEM educational contexts.

This systematic literature review revealed challenges, successful interventions, and gaps that remain in the literature. Briefly, challenges for students with disabilities in STEM include navigating poor teaching styles in STEM, stigma against disabilities, and highly-structured curricula that limit flexible possibilities. Interventions include STEM-focused accommodations and utilization of Universal Design for Learning. Finally, gaps in the literature include both the need for broad and narrow research. In terms of breadth, there remains a need for longitudinal and trend-based research about students with disabilities both in and out of STEM. In terms of depth, research that focuses on specific disciplines (e.g., chemistry, engineering) and specific disabilities (e.g., learning disabilities, mobility impairments) is needed.

A systematic review of the literature reveals the ways that STEM educational environments can marginalize students with disabilities, interventions that instructors, practitioners, departments, and instructors can take to alleviate this marginalization, and areas on which future researchers should focus. While research alone cannot totally redress inequity, marginalization, and ableism, it can highlight ways to better support students with and without disabilities and create more inclusive STEM environments in American colleges and universities.

Author

• Rachel Friedensen, St Cloud State University