After Racial Stress and Before Racial Battle Fatigue: Development and Validation of a Scale Measuring Academic Coping to Racial Climate at Predominantly White Institutions (Poster 17)

• In Event: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

Self-regulated learning (SRL) research has blind spots regarding how SRL plays out in racially oppressive environments, which could impact conclusions about diverse students’ educational experiences. Here, I evaluate an SRL behavior that emerges particularly among racially marginalized students as a means of coping with racialized stress in academic environments: the Twice-As phenomenon. This is based on the cultural saying “you have to work twice as hard to get half as far,” frequently experienced by Black and Latine people compared to their White counterparts. To understand the Twice-As phenomenon, I conducted focus groups, informing the psychometric development and statistical validation of a scale to identify students’ engagement in the Twice-As phenomenon. I then used the scale to explore how this phenomenon manifests in graduate STEM students’ academic behavior, including demonstrating both high SRL and burnout. I administered the scale to students in online and in-person learning contexts to examine the scale’s usefulness for understanding racially marginalized students’ learning experiences at predominantly White institutions. Ultimately, I aim to inform instructors’ perceptions of students’ efforts, demystify invisible labors to an unfamiliar audience, and propose a socio-cognitive approach for anti-racism efforts.

Author

• Hannah Valdiviejas, Society for Research in Child Development