The Multidimensionality of place in informing Black students’ STEM engagement

• In Event: Placing Blackness: An exploration of Black STEM students’ connections to place identity

Abstract

Purpose: This research explores how place influences career aspirations, disciplinary choices, and sense of identity among STEM academic communities for Black undergraduate students. More specifically, this study notes how place, as a social, cultural, political, and geographic construct, situates students’ access to resources and opportunities that inform their STEM participation and persistence.
Theoretical Framework: This study employs Black Spatial Storylines (Germinaro, 2025; Germinaro & Nickson, 2024; Nickson, 2022) to unpack Black STEM students’ STEM experiences in relation to their conceptions of their multidimensional-multiplicative identities of Blackness. Black Spatial Storylines “illuminates the breadth and diversity of Black spatial experiences” (Germinaro & Nickson, 2024, p. 2), noting the situated, contextual nature of how one makes sense of who they are, how they show up, why they engage in specific activities, and what they desire for themselves. Black Spatial Storylines “values and centers Black epistemologies, ontologies, and axiologies to address and understand the brilliance and possibilities of Black space” (Germinaro & Nickson, 2024, p. 3). As a framework, it draws attention to how Black people story their processes of becoming and their understandings of specific concepts as it is connected to their race and geography in ways that account for social, cultural, political, and temporal forces.
Methods: Focus group interviews capturing the narratives of students highlight the connections between place, persistence, and blackness, a perspective that describes the process of ‘becoming’ Black within the US (Cross, 1994) and their educational experiences as STEM Undergraduate students.
Findings: Three emergent themes around place include: (1) Place as Geographic, Informing Choice of STEM Discipline. Students’ regional and community contexts influence their STEM disciplinary focus, often linked to perceived relevance or access; (2) Place as Sociocultural and Economic, Informing Access to Role Models. Students highlight the critical impact of socioeconomic background on their ability to see themselves in STEM, especially through the visibility (or absence) of professionals generally and STEM professionals specifically; and (3) Place as Political, Informing their Authenticity. Students describe environments where they do not have to code-switch or mask aspects of their identity to succeed in academic and STEM spaces.
Scholarly Contributions: Implications exist for STEM, STEM education, and Higher education communities interested in supporting students through the centering of place as a critical tool for supporting persistence and nuancing Blackness in STEM. Doing so requires acknowledging the cultural and geographic backgrounds students bring with them and creating place-responsive pedagogies that reflect students’ lived experiences. Further, an understanding of place in STEM education can better support recruitment, persistence, and sense of belonging efforts. By accounting for a nuanced perspective of place, social, cultural, and political transformations that align with geospatial understandings of higher education can occur to better ensure undergraduate students’ success.

Authors

• Shari E. Watkins, American University

• Terrell R Morton, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Brian McGowan, American University