STEM Equity: Building an Action Research Agenda for Assessing Long-Term Outcomes of Girl-Focused STEM Programs

• In Event: Informal Science Institutions and Equity: Future-Oriented Historiography of Research and Practice

Abstract

Objectives. The low rate of women participating in STEM is a continuing challenge in the United States. Women make up 51% of the population, but comprise only 24% of its STEM workforce (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2017). This considerable gap is an equity issue, especially if equity is viewed as providing not just opportunity but also other supports to ensure success. To this end, our NSF-supported project developed an action research agenda to better assess long-term impacts of girl-focused STEM programs provided by informal science institutions (ISIs).

Perspectives. While research on the short-term impact of informal STEM programs is promising for counteracting contextual factors that may contribute to a lack of persistence (such as gender norms, income level, race and ethnicity), beyond a handful of retrospective studies such as Cascading Influences (McCreedy and Dierking, 2013) and follow-up interviews (e.g., Mosatche et al., 2013; Tyler-Wood, Ellison, Lim, & Periathiruvadi, 2011) research on long-term impacts of girl-focused informal STEM programs is limited. This is problematic as many programs aim to increase involvement of girls and women in STEM.

Methods. We used the Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR model), a method for engaging in collaborative educational research and development that takes into account the need for negotiation, coordination, and adaptation among stakeholders (Penuel, Fishman, Cheng, & Sabelli, 2011, p. 332).

Data Sources. Our project engaged five regional representatives from a national girl-serving STEM network through in-person and virtual convenings, along with five research and STEM-education advisors as the project’s Collaborative Planning Group (CPG). Drawing on data shared by the CPG from their own projects and data solicited from eleven additional ISIs, themes for wider discussion emerged. Two facilitated twitter chats with 70 and 55 participants respectively were held along with four focus groups, each engaging key stakeholders such as ISI staff, program participants, mentors, and family members. 12 program logic models were collected and compared. Using coding and other data analysis tools such as hashtracking, we assessed articulated outcomes, needs, capacities and challenges in relationship to a literature review.

Results. As a result of our analysis we identified persistent problems of practice and some suggested solutions around elements such as staff capacity, student mobility, unintentional barriers, practitioner resistance to rigid outcomes, and different understandings of commonly used terms such as “STEM identity.” From this process we have developed:
- A logic model representing the relationships among resources, activities, and the short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term goals
- A model of critical junctures of girls’ pathways into STEM careers
- Proposed methodologies for collecting and analyzing longitudinal data
- Guidelines for nurturing and maintaining relationships with program participants
- Plans for implementing longitudinal research

Significance. Understanding methods for measuring long-term outcomes and identifying elements of programs that promote equitable access to a STEM career trajectory for girls is essential to addressing the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields. This research agenda addresses a gap in current understanding and can serve as a framework for others engaged in this work in ISIs and elsewhere.

Author

• Lynda Susan Kennedy, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum