Intellectual Merit

From looking at longitudinal data of this population’s educational transfer pathways to analyzing their personal networks and the impacts of these networks on the way they think as scientists and navigate community college, this study has carried out a comprehensive approach to look at broad and contextual patterns of this historically excluded group in the STEM fields. 

Institutional Transfer Pathways

The institutions that this specific population has attended between 2011-2017 show a dispersed network (Figure I) with a low density of 0.0023, highlighting lack of connectivity between the 370 schools and, hence, the scarce formalized pathways for women of color STEM majors to transfer from two-year to four-year institutions. 

Figure II depicts that the biggest nodes are green (4-years) which shows that many WOC STEM majors are leaving four-year institutions after transferring there. Meanwhile, Figure III shows that the biggest nodes are blue which means WOC STEM majors frequently laterally transfer to other 2-years. The lack of formalized pathways for this group also can inform educational policymakers and institutional leaders the value of establishing and strengthening such connections to solidify this pathway. 

Personal Networks that Influence Scientific Thinking and Navigational Capital

Women of color STEM majors in the community college have diverse influential networks: (1) family members, (2) college faculty and staff, (3) friends, (4) K-12 educators, (5) college schoolmates, (6) local community members, (7) public figures, and (8) religious figures. The variety of social relationships represented indicate that women of color STEM majors in the community college draw knowledge from multiple sources at the intersection of their multiple identities, enriching the knowledge that these students can bring to learning environments.

For scientific thinking development, family and college faculty/staff have the highest influence on the scientific thinking of 75% and 66.67%, respectively, of all participants (Figure IV). For navigational capital growth, family and college educators also have the highest influence on 91.67% and 63.89%, respectively, of all participants (Figure V). 

Qualitative narratives also revealed how family influenced participants, regardless of the relatives’ educational attainment level at the high school or lower level. For example, when asked about who influenced her scientific observation, 26-year-old Latina Physics major, Callisto, shared that her mother “always told [her] how to question things” which “[gave her] the scientific aspect” of observing things in detail. Assertive and analytical matriarchs made a strong impression on participants. 

Finally, participants nominated their schoolmates (such as peer tutors and STEM diversity clubs) as the most impactful group on their notions of thinking about diversity of people and ideas in STEM fields. This finding infers the significance of creating a campus and STEM classroom environment with diverse bodies and opportunities to engage in meaningful interactions.

Broader Impacts

Learning more about what influences the scientific and academic development of women of color community college students may help promote efforts to broaden participation and access for underrepresented groups in the STEM fields. Diversifying the STEM fields can enrich the unique perspectives represented and perhaps catalyze innovations in how knowledge is produced in the STEM fields.

With many underrepresented students entering postsecondary education via community colleges, there is a huge potential in broadening participation by reaching these students in this level of their educational career. Centering their own experience and background can inform how to best support them as emerging scientists and as STEM major graduates. Knowing more about the actual needs of these students in their own voices can help enhance STEM enrichment programs that are targeted to them--especially since they have unique needs compared to STEM majors in four-year universities. 

Professional Development

Throughout this process, an early career researcher with an interdisciplinary background in Biology, Education, and Black Studies obtained extensive professional development in advanced quantitative and qualitative research methods, mentoring, multi-layered dissemination, intergenerational collaboration, and networking opportunities. Primary mentors were Dr. Felisha Herrera Villarreal, Dr. Kimberly Tanner, Dr. Carlos Gutierrez, and Dr. Cecilia Rios-Aguilar. Dr. Adriana Ruiz Alvarado consulted on institutional social network pathways.

With the support of the Research & Equity Scholarship Institute's Dr. Victoria Rodriguez-Operana (SDSU RESISTE), PI created a grant webpage:

https://res-iste.sdsu.edu/index.php/women-of-color-in-stem/

Dr. Yap built a GitHub page with R and Python codes if researchers need to use similar statistical analyses and data visualizations. 

https://github.com/1melomelo/Women-of-Color-STEM-influential-networks

Aside from submitting manuscripts to STEM education journals such as CBE-LSE, PI also published a book chapter that caters to community college practitioners (Figure VI), presented at various conferences and invited talks, participated in a virtual web-cast panel (Figure VII), and contributed to the HSI STEM Resource Hub Newsletter:

https://hsistemhub.org/portfolio-item/january-2021-newsletter/

Dr. Yap trained and mentored graduate students from Agnes Scott College: Adrienne Rice, Jasmine Moore, Kalli Walker, and Sara Sanford. To evaluate professional development activities, Dr. Yap also collaborated with other graduate students enrolled in Agnes Scott College’s Master’s certificate programs in Social Innovation and Evaluation and Assessment Methods. 

Last Modified: 04/30/2022
Modified by: Melo-Jean Yap