GSE: Working Class Women using Community College Pathways to Four Year STEM Degrees

来自工薪阶层家庭的女性非裔美国人和拉丁裔学生在科学和技术领域，尤其是计算机科学和工程领域的代表性明显不足。由于超过50%的第一代低收入拉丁裔和非裔美国女性将两年制大学作为进入四年制学位的起点，而很少有人真正完成了这一途径，因此需要进行研究，以更好地了解这一途径以及这一途径中不同种族的工人阶级女性的经历。本研究采用混合方法，短期纵向序贯设计。在15个月的时间里，研究人员对两组学生进行了跟踪调查：1)75名社区大学学生转入四年制大学攻读STEM学位，2)75名刚毕业的高中毕业生首次进入社区大学。数据来源包括组织层面的人种学访谈，以及对家庭、大学和工作场所背景下的主要成年支持者的访谈，个人访谈，以及对指导、文化资本和程序知识的定量调查。成长曲线模型追踪文化资本和师徒关系随时间的变化，并使用定性数据在个人和组织层面确定影响参与者持久性的关键因素。深入的案例研究增加了对获得和维持指导和相关资本的过程的理解，以及这三个主要背景如何在工人阶级学生的生活中相互协调地发挥作用。智力优势：在四年的高等教育阶段，有大量的研究考察学生。决定放弃科学技术领域，转而攻读四年制大学学位。尽管过去的研究为考察留存率提供了重要的基础，但这项研究对工人阶级女性以及她们从社区大学到四年制STEM学位的转变过程中的可变性提供了重要的新知识。考虑到工人阶级女性的复杂性？美国的教育途径和领域？由于缺乏对这一人群和社区大学STEM课程的研究，这项研究为不同种族背景的工人阶级女性坚持学习的因素提供了新的认识。更广泛的影响：本研究的知识影响了工人阶级女性的保留，通过提供组织（学院和大学）策略来帮助这些女性追求STEM教育，其中很大一部分是有色人种学生。此外，该研究还包括几名女本科生，其中包括许多有色人种学生和第一代大学生，以进行研究体验。促进和加强社区学院和四年制学院之间现有的伙伴关系。传播包括开发一个供公立学校使用的网站，为公众提供报告，白皮书和期刊文章。

Female African American and Latino students from working class families are significantly underrepresented in science and technical fields, especially computer science and engineering. Since over fifty percent of first generation, lower-income income Latinos and African American women use two year colleges as an entry point to the four year degree, and so few actually complete that pathway, research is needed to better understand this pathway and the experience of ethnically diverse working class women within the pathway. This study uses a mixed methods short-term longitudinal sequential design. Two cohorts are followed over a 15 month time period: 1) 75 community college students accepted as transfers to 4-year colleges to pursue STEM degrees, and 2) 75 recent high school graduates entering community college for the first time. Data sources include ethnographic interviews at the organization level and with key adult supporters across contexts of home, college and workplace, individual interviews, and quantitative surveys of mentoring, cultural capital, and procedural knowledge. Growth curve models trace cultural capital and mentoring over time, and qualitative data are used to identify key factors that influence the persistence of the participants at an individual and organization level. In-depth case studies increase understanding about the process of acquiring and sustaining mentoring and related capital, and how these three major contexts function in concert with one another in the lives of working class students. Intellectual Merit: At the four year post-secondary level, there is a substantial body of research examining students? decisions to switch away from science and technology fields while pursuing their four-year college degrees. Although this past research has provided a critical foundation for examining retention, this study contributes significant new knowledge about working class women and the variability within their transitions along the community college pathway to the four year STEM degrees. Given the complexity of working class women?s educational pathways, and the field?s lack of research focused on this population and community college STEM pathways, this study offers new knowledge about the factors that contribute to persistence of working class women of diverse ethnic backgrounds. Broader Impacts: Knowledge from this study influences the retention of working class women, with a large proportion of students of color by offering organizations (colleges and universities) strategies to assist these women in their pursuit of STEM education. In addition, the study includes several female undergraduate students, including many students of color and first generation college students, in a research experience. Existing partnerships between community colleges and four year colleges are fostered and strengthened. Dissemination includes the development of a website for use in public schools, reports for public audiences, white papers, and journal articles.