Understanding Mentoring Style of Mentors and Science Identity Formation in Historically Excluded Undergraduate Students in Natural History Collections

Background: Science identity formation is integral to the transformation from a student to a member of the STEM workforce. However, the formation of a student’s science identity is affected by various factors such as support from mentors and community members, the student’s perception of their peers’ acceptance of them, as well as the student’s own perception of their role in research. The aim of this study is to investigate mentors’ understanding of science identity formation, their mentoring style, and if it is effective when working with students from historically excluded populations. A phenomenological approach was used to conduct this study. Structured interviews were conducted with natural history collections faculty members of various backgrounds and career levels. Results: Three themes emerged that contribute to science identity formation through mentoring: 1. Factors for science identity formation; 2. Mentorship among different career stages, and 3. Defining own mentoring style. Predominantly, participants realized that their own experience as a mentee shapes how they approach mentoring.Conclusions: Although this study describes the mentee’s science identity formation from the mentor’s point of view, the study’s participants realized the importance they play in a student’s science identity formation, and that mindful mentoring is necessary for success when engaging historically excluded groups in the STEM workforce.

Boosting Minority Teacher Recruitment and Retention for a Diverse Future STEM Workforce

The United States STEM workforce has yet to reflect the demographics of the larger population. This discrepancy begins at the base of the STEM pipeline with a significant lack of minority STEM K-12 teachers to serve as mentors and role models to minority students. Research has shown that minority students’ exposure to same-race teachers increased academic output and education attainment up to 32%. Unfortunately, minority teachers face a revolving-door effect: the cycle of increased recruitment countered by a high turnover amongst minority teachers compared to their white counterparts. Minority teachers who leave the profession consistently cite negative teaching environments, discrimination, and lack of support as the main drivers of their decision to quit teaching. The Maryland state legislature recently passed the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Act, which attempts to address teacher recruitment and retention more comprehensively. Here, we go beyond the Blueprint’s baseline tools to recommend targeted strategies to recruit and retain minority STEM K-12 teachers in Maryland. Through the creation of a robust peer mentorship pipeline between new and experienced teachers, prioritization of school staff diversity and inclusion training, and the promotion of teacher autonomy, we will increase minority student education attainment and encourage the growth of a diverse STEM workforce in Maryland.

Reimagining STEM Workforce Development as a Braided River

A contemporary approach to today’s science careers looks less like a structured pipeline and more like a collection of paths that change and adapt to the needs of the individual.

Tiny Earth: A Big Idea for STEM Education and Antibiotic Discovery

ABSTRACT The world faces two seemingly unrelated challenges—a shortfall in the STEM workforce and increasing antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens. We address these two challenges with Tiny Earth, an undergraduate research course that excites students about science and creates a pipeline for antibiotic discovery.

The Implications of Morality Politics for Effecting Inclusion in the STEM Workforce

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce development, identified as a critical consideration for meeting current and future societal needs and challenges, depends on the capacity to draw upon a talented pool of individuals possessing requisite knowledge and training. In the United States, as elsewhere, related questions have arisen about who constitutes that pool and the conditions under which it has been determined. Noting the currency and controversies surrounding persistent inequalities and inequities in STEM educational attainment and workforce participation, the research presented here offers an elaborated framework and dedicated analysis of related processes, with the goal of extending understanding and delineating implications for identifying strategic points for intervention. In ideological and political terms, efforts to combat related educational and workforce disparities reflect a “morality politics” diffused in social identities and behaviors and embedded in structural claims with broad and pragmatic implications for STEM educational access and workforce opportunity. With particular attention to race and ethnicity (and gender), this analysis revisits and unpacks related assumptions and addresses challenges attached to the distribution of benefits and burdens in the face of both ideological and practical expediencies in determining profiles of STEM participation and inclusion.

Incorporating Graduate-level Internships to Strengthen the STEM Workforce and Trainee Career Prospects

The science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields in the United States are currently facing a crisis: graduate programs are not adequately preparing all trainees for the diverse career paths on which they embark. Over recent years, this problem has intensified as the number of Ph.D. holders increased and academic research jobs stagnated or shrunk. Still, most STEM doctoral programs have maintained the singular focus on training students for academic careers at a cost to the individual’s career, society, and the economy. Universities and graduate institutions must adapt to meet the increasing demand for STEM laborers in non-academic sectors and provide relevant and robust training to their students. We propose amending the STEM Opportunities Act of 2019 to incentivize institutions to integrate experiential learning and expand training services. Provided diverse career-training, highly-skilled Ph.D. graduates will more efficiently enter and fill the STEM workforce, stimulating the U.S. economy. Addressed to: The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, United States House of Representatives; and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Intersections of Integrated STEM and Socio-Scientific Issues

Current policy documents across the world call for changes in K-12 science teaching to use integrated STEM strategies to provide a more authentic learning environment for students. Though the importance of integrated STEM education is established through national and international policy documents, there remains disagreement on focus, models, and effective approaches for integrated STEM instruction. A primary focus of STEM policies is addressing STEM workforce issues. However, other important foci for global STEM initiatives are more equitable education, poverty reduction, and increased STEM literacy and awareness. This chapter critiques current implementations of STEM as focused only on technical aspects of engineering design which will not meet any of the goals of integrated STEM. Rather, the authors propose that integration of SSI into STEM lessons will promote the social thinking necessary in engineering design and enhance work toward achieving not only STEM workforce preparation, but also increased STEM literacy and equity within STEM.