Exploring Academic Parenthood in STEM Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 1:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Research on Women and Girls Roundtable Sessions (Table 7)

Abstract

In this session we present preliminary findings from a qualitative study exploring global, multinational experiences of STEM education faculty who became parents in early career. Study participants are early career faculty (i.e. doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows, research associates, and professors) in STEM Education at a University in US, Greece, Brazil, Germany, Australia, Zambia, Spain and Ghana. In our analysis of the data, we learned how STEM education faculty who are parents leverage knowledge gained from their roles as parents to improve their effectiveness in preparing future mathematics and science teachers. Based on these data, we make recommendations for mentoring that is responsive to the needs of early career STEM education faculty parents, especially mothers, thus addressing the leaky pipeline problem.

Authors

• Gabriel Oduro-Boamah, University of South Florida - Tampa

• Sadat Abubakar, University of South Florida

• Sarah A. van Ingen Lauer, University of South Florida

• Eugenia Vomvoridi-Ivanovic, University of South Florida