Contextual Research-Large Empirical: Race and Gender in Context: A Multi-method of Study of Risk and Resilience in African American College Students' Pathways in STEM Areas

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This research project addresses a persistent STEM problem: recruiting and retaining African American students. The outcomes should expand knowledge and understanding of factors that are deterrents to African American students entering STEM disciplines by examining the academic progress of college students at four different universities (University of Michigan, Michigan State, Wayne State and Western Michigan). The study will include students in both STEM and non-STEM majors to study processes unique to students from differing academic contexts. The Principal Investigators will collaborate with the NSF funded Michigan-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (MI-LSAMP), a multi-university initiative dedicated to promoting persistence in STEM areas among underrepresented minority college students.The longitudinal, multi-method design focuses on within group variation in the impact of personal characteristics and contextual stigma on African American student STEM success, which is an unexplored area of research. Multiple theoretical models of relationships among racial stigma, gender, racial, academic and other identities and academic adjustment and performance will be tested. Major research questions include: What types of stigma do students experience around their racial and gender group memberships? Does academic identity mediate the relation between racial stigma experiences and academic adjustment? Are there direct effects of racial identity and/or gender identity on academic identity, daily/situational motivation, and overall academic adjustment?The research includes four inter-related studies using different methods integrated into a single research project. They include a longitudinal survey, a diary study, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and an ethnographic assessment of the institutions. Although the studies are designed to answer independent questions, combining the studies affords a unique opportunity to answer a number of questions regarding the processes by which African American students succeed and others fail in STEM fields in a manner that would not be possible without such a multi-method design.