Misfits or misrecognition? Exploring STEMM degree students' concerns about non-completion
Misfits or misrecognition? Exploring STEMM degree students' concerns about non-completion
复制标题
不适应还是误认？
DOI：
10.1002/sce.21794
复制
发表时间：
2023
影响因子：
4.3
通讯作者：
Archer L
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Archer L
降低学位未完成率和扩大STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）的参与是国际政策关注的关键问题。本文分析了英国1886名学位学生的开放式回应调查数据，重点关注27% （n= 136/501）的STEM和高地位医学（STEMM）学位学生和26% （n= 367/1385）的非STEMM学生，他们表示担心自己可能无法完成学位。该研究还补充了两个说明性的纵向案例研究，对10岁至21岁的年轻女性进行了采访，她们从各自的STEM学位课程中退出。大约四分之一的stem学生和非stem学生都表达了他们可能无法完成的担忧，并报告了类似的担忧类型，其中学术担忧最为重要，但在stem学生中尤其如此。表达担忧的学生比例在stem学科（从18%的数学学生到37%的计算机学生）和学生人口统计中有所不同，女性、少数种族和来自较不富裕背景的学生最有可能担心他们可能无法完成学业。本文采用布尔迪厄的视角来解释研究结果中的模式，挑战人力资本对未完成学业的解释，认为这是由于个别学生的缺陷（“不适应”），并采用社会结构解释（“误认”），将注意力集中在资本和象征性暴力在形成未完成学业差异风险中的作用上。人们呼吁将stem学生未完成学业理解为一个结构性问题，而不仅仅是个别“没有准备”的学生不“适合”他们的学位。
Reducing rates of degree non‐completion and widening participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) are key international policy concerns. This paper analyzes open‐ended response survey data from 1886 degree students in England, focusing on the 27% (n= 136/501) STEM and high‐status medicine (STEMM) degree students and 26% (n= 367/1385) non‐STEMM students who expressed concerns that they might not complete their degree. Insights are supplemented with two illustrative longitudinal case studies of young women, interviewed from age 10 to 21, who withdrew from their respective STEM degree courses. Around a quarter of both STEMM and non‐STEMM students expressed concerns that they might not complete and reported similar types of concern, with academic concerns being of prime importance—but particularly so among STEMM students. The percentage of students expressing concerns varied between STEMM disciplines (from 18% of maths students to 37% of computing students) and by student demographics, with women, racially minoritized, and students from less affluent backgrounds appearing most likely to worry that they might not complete. A Bourdieusian lens is employed to interpret patterns in the findings, challenging human capital explanations of non‐completion as due to individual student deficit (“misfits”) with a sociostructural interpretation (“misrecognition”) that draws attention to the role of capital and symbolic violence in shaping differential risks of non‐completion. Calls are made for the value of understanding STEMM student non‐completion as a structural issue, not just individual “unprepared” students who do not “fit” their degree.