Science of Broadening Participation: Stratification in Academic Career Trajectories

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SES-1421090Roberta Spalter-RothMarie MoraJean ShinAmerican Sociological AssociationThe investigators will complete research that will better theorize and contribute to better a understanding of the experiences of underrepresented minorities (URMs), especially black and Hispanic scholars in higher education in sociology and economics. The study is interdisciplinary in that it compares URM career trajectories in two STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines (sociology and economics), and integrates major theoretical concepts from each. The results can suggest strategies to broaden STEM participation for URMs and increase the likelihood of their successful academic career trajectories. Successful career trajectories in these two STEM disciplines are normatively measured as full professorships at research-extensive universities. As such, a major purpose of the study is to measure specific aspects of the stratification processes and outcomes that may create or re-create inequalities in the academic career trajectories of underrepresented minorities in two disciplines: sociology and economics. As a result of this effort, the researchers will develop two databases for "evidence-based" evaluations as well as a model for data collection and analysis that will benefit other science disciplines. The study, conducted by a diverse research team of sociologists and economists, uses a mixed-methods approach to develop theory and measure trajectories of scholars from both disciplines. It will test the interrelationships between several theoretical concepts that the investigators argue are aspects of stratification processes, and whether they are associated with career stratification. The key theoretical concepts that will be tested include the following: human capital and social capital including professional networks and marginality to those networks; "two worlds" and the "color line" for racial and ethnic minorities; and the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender. Broader Impacts The study findings are important, first, because of the emphasis on bringing URMs into STEM disciplines so that they can teach and mentor an increasingly diverse body of students as well as bring new perspectives and paradigms to research and policy. These new perspectives may have the effect of increasing U.S. innovation and competitiveness, as well as increasing the number of U.S. participants in specific STEM fields, including the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Second, given that the number of adjunct faculty is on the rise at many institutions, who will obtain and succeed in tenure-track positions? A greater representation of URM scholars as full-time, tenured faculty is particularly important in light of changing demographics in the U.S. population. Combined, blacks and Hispanics represent nearly 30 percent of the entire population, but only 9.6 percent of all full-time faculty members in degree-granting institutions. The study will evaluate current intervention programs designed to increase participation (recruitment) and bolster careers (retention) of URMs in the academy, but also propose new interventions and strategies. The research results will be widely disseminated in order to provide insights into how to improve programs and policies across STEM disciplines, based on interdisciplinary theory from sociology and economics. The study will also train a group of undergraduate and graduate students to aid in carrying out all aspects of the study, including exposure to multiple research methods and types of data analysis.