Family Impacts the Scientific Thinking and Navigation Capital of Women of Color STEM Majors in the Community College

• In Event: Searching for Identity: (Re)Imagining Culturally Relevant and Equitable STEM Practices and Counter-Spaces

Abstract

Focusing on community college students may provide rich data from the multiple identities represented by its students, including first-generation college-going students, immigrant backgrounds, and commuters. The importance of centering the standpoint of WOC in addressing their experiences & retention in STEM career pathways via subjugated knowledge (Foucault, 1980; Collins, 1990; 2002). Social network theory can be used as a tool for studying the manifestation of an individual’s location to her access to resources and knowledge. This study highlights the networks that influence the scientific thinking of 36 women of color STEM majors at an urban, two-year Hispanic-Serving Institution. A case study of convergent mixed approaches of the qualitative questionnaire and ego-centered social network analysis was used to explore how participants’ marginalized locations affect their knowledge production as scientists and navigational capital as community college students. Results show that although participants named multiple sources of influences, family impacted the scientific thinking and navigational capital of participants the most, regardless of their relatives’ highest level of education completed. The family contributes to the intellectual development and social capital of this understudied population--not merely serve as their source of support and inspiration. The standpoint of women of color community college STEM majors should be explored further, especially with the potential of community wealth capital in shaping scientific thinking, and hence, knowledge production in STEM fields.

Author

• Melo-Jean Yap, Johns Hopkins University