Immigrant Generation, Out-of-School-Time STEM Activity, and STEM Career Choices

• In Event: International Relations Committee Paper Session 2

Abstract

Little attention has been paid to research on STEM education among immigrant students despite many of the salient workforce laborers in STEM are part of an immigrant generation. Indeed, recent research confirms that out-of-school-time (OST) STEM activities support students’ academic work and ignite their interests, especially in STEM, but there is a paucity of research analyzing the association between OST STEM activities and immigrant generations. Using a national stratified random sample of students in US universities, we found that immigrant students who are foreign, first, and second-generation, are more likely than native students who are third plus generation to participate in OST structured STEM programs and are less likely to participate in OST unstructured STEM activities during high school.

Authors

• Elizabeth Dayoung Oh, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

• Gerhard Sonnert, Harvard University

• Chen Chen, University of Hong Kong

• Philip M. Sadler, Harvard University