Engendering Equity Ethic and STEM Persistence Among Women of Color Through a Justice-Focused Mentor-Teaching Initiative

• In Event: Women in STEM Across Postsecondary Education Sectors

Abstract

The current study sought to address the critical shortage of women of color (WoC) in STEM by examining the influence of engaging in the I CAN PERSIST (ICP) STEM Initiative counterspace. Specifically, positioning ICP undergraduate WoC as mentor-teachers facilitating justice-focused problem-based learning activities with high school girls of color. We used the term mentor-teacher to describe someone who simultaneously assumes the role of a mentor and teacher in near-peer interactions (Scott & White, 2013). Informed by frameworks such as the Equity Ethic framework and Counterspace Framework, results from four ICP scholars’ reflections indicated that the ICP STEM Initiative created a counterspace where justice-focused mentor-teaching fostered WoC’s equity ethic and career preparedness and aided in their STEM persistence.

Authors

• Christen Priddie, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Francesca Arielle Williamson, Indiana University

• Kerrie G. Wilkins-Yel, University of Massachusetts Boston