Understanding the Relationship Between Risk-Taking and Academic Engagement Among STEM Majors With Marginalized Identities

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Understanding Self and Others Within Institutional Contexts

Abstract

The term “risk-taking” is framed as being generally accessible to all students, especially in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines that have historically prioritized white/male identities. By not interrogating the implications of risk-taking for students of marginalized identities, scholars and practitioners may overlook potentially negative consequences of behaviors that are assumed to be positive for all students. The purpose of this study is to explore risk-taking’s role in the academic engagement of undergraduate students in STEM majors, particularly in Black and white women and men. This study found that there were racial and gender differences among STEM students’ engagement with risk-taking and there is a relationship between risk-taking disposition and academic engagement that should be explored.

Author

• Diondraya Taylor, University of California - Los Angeles