Centering Minoritized Students’ Cost Perceptions and Precursors in Undergraduate Physics: An Asset-Based Approach

• In Event: Division C Vice Presidential Session: Calling in Educational Psychology Researchers, Continued: Supporting Culturally Responsive and Critical Research Journeys

Abstract

Objectives and Framework. Efforts to retain physics students who are minoritized are essential (NSF, 2017). Much research has pointed to motivation and its precursors as powerful mechanisms for STEM retention (Rosenzweig & Wigfield, 2016). However, the motivation literature has fallen short of centering minoritized students’ experiences: these students are grossly underrepresented in the literature, and frameworks often fail to acknowledge sociohistorical underpinnings of motivation (Kumar & DeCuir-Gunby, 2023). Moreover, little is known about cost – a motivational belief predicting disengagement in STEM – and its precursors among students who are minoritized (Eccles & Wigfield, 2020). Cultural cost, “...engaging with curricular material that…distorts or renders invisible the cultures of disenfranchised students, thus placing the school curriculum at odds with students’ valued cultural beliefs and behaviors” (Kumar et al., 2018, p. 83), remains largely unexplored yet is salient among minoritized students (Kumar et al., 2018). Therefore, guided by situated expectancy-value theory, self-determination theory, and a critical approach (i.e., “how power and privilege shape the narratives of our research and subjugate the experiences of oppressed groups” (Hope et al., 2019, p. 64)), we examined the following among minoritized undergraduates in physics (Table 1; Table 2):

RQ1: How do motivational precursors – relatedness and autonomy – predict competence beliefs and task values (especially cost)?

RQ2: What are the experiences of students with particularly underrepresented identities in physics, and how do they perceive cultural cost?

Method. We used existing data (N = 142) from physics courses at a large South Central U.S. institution. At the semester’s start, students reported relatedness and autonomy; at the end, they reported competence beliefs and values (including cost; Table 1). Students also reported their social identities. From this dataset, we then identified our sample (N = 97); all had at least one minoritized social identity (Table 2).

Results. RQ1: Multiple linear regressions revealed that relatedness frustration and autonomy satisfaction predicted emotional cost (β = .49, β = -.24) and loss of valued alternatives cost (β = .37, β = -.25; all ps < .05). RQ2: We focused analyses on students of color (n = 29) to ensure their experiences were not lost in the aggregate. Descriptive comparisons between the overall and concentrated sample revealed that the latter experienced a stronger positive relation between relatedness frustration and emotional cost and negative relation between autonomy satisfaction and all four cost constructs. Finally, we examined open-ended cultural cost responses and quantitative reports of students with at least three minoritized identities (Table 3; n = 12) to further center their experiences (Delgado & Stefancic, 2023). Findings revealed three cultural cost themes: belief that physics is acultural, surprise by representation, and feeling their identity was not represented in physics.

Significance. Theoretically, findings highlight the benefits of integrating social cognitive and critical perspectives (Koenka & Wigfield, 2023). This study also provides methodological guidance for centering the motivational experiences of minoritized students, especially when using previously-collected data that is primarily quantitative. Practically, results reinforce creating physics environments that prioritize supporting (a) relatedness and sense of learning ownership for students who are minoritized and (b) all cultural identities to minimize cultural cost.

Authors

• Danielle N. Berry, University of Oklahoma

• Alison C. Koenka, University of Oklahoma

• Kanvarbir Gill, University of Oklahoma

• Korinthia D. Nicolai, Indiana University

• Candace Andrews, University of Oklahoma

• Maria Idrees, University of Oklahoma

• Benjamin C. Heddy, University of Oklahoma

• Eric Abraham, University of Oklahoma