Poster #29 - Promoting Girls' Engagement and Sense of Belonging in STEM With Communal Language

• In Event: Poster Session 13

Abstract

Barriers to STEM form early, as implicit gender biases associating science, math, and brilliance with men over women develop as early as age 6 and begin to affect girl’s interests, sense of belonging in STEM environments, and career aspirations (Baron et al., 2014; Bian et al., 2017; Block et al., 2018; Cvencek et al., 2011; Master 2021). While disrupting these implicit biases have proven difficult (Forscher et al., 2019), research suggests that shifting how STEM fields are framed positively impact women and girls’ interest and sense of belonging in STEM (Cheryan et al., 2009; Nater & Sczesny, 2016). For example, Diekman et al. (2011) found that describing STEM occupations and activities as affording communal values was sufficient to improve women’s interest in STEM fields. Informed by the work of Diekman et al. (2011), the current study examined the effect of framing a science activity (i.e., a coding program) in communal language (versus agentic language) on girls’ interest, engagement, and sense of belonging in a STEM environment. Coding was chosen as the target activity as computer science remains one of the most male-dominated STEM fields and research has shown that gaining experience with STEM skills like coding can increase girls’ motivations in these domains (Master et al., 2017).

Children (N=155, 81 girls) were presented with two coding program descriptions, one framed in communal language (focused on working with and helping others), the other agentic (focused on personal achievement and benefit). After exposure to each program, children were asked to assess their interest in the program, interest in coding, and expected sense of belonging. Additionally, children were asked to select which camp they thought a set of 8 child characters (4 girls, 4 boys of varying depicted ethnicities) would like best.

Results reveal that children, regardless of gender, preferred the communally framed coding program over the agentic program, F(1, 106) = -3.34, p < .01. Children who had previous exposure to coding (n=107), marginally expected more belonging in the communal program, F(1, 100) = 2.93, p = .09, and were willing to dedicate more time to the communal program than to the agentic program, F(1, 100) = 4.36, p = .039. Additionally, no gender bias was detected as children were not more likely to assign girl characters to the communal program nor boy characters to the agentic program during the character sorting task. This relationship did not vary with children’s gender, race, age, preferred program, or exposure to coding.

Taken together, these data suggest that a communal framing may increase girls’ willingness to engage in stereotypical masculine STEM environments, without alienating boys or requiring gender segregated “girls only” programs. Boosting interest in science activities like coding programs is an essential first step to increasing girls’ opportunities and experiences in highly male-dominated fields like computer science. Implications for how communal language can be used in advertising children’s STEM camps, voluntary school, and after school programs will be discussed.

Authors

• Cameron Hall, University of British Columbia (UBC)
  Presenting Author

• Jessica Lee, University of British Columbia (UBC)

• Jennifer Steele, York University

• Andrew Scott Baron, University of British Columbia (UBC)