Doctoral Dissertation Research: Who Wants to be an Engineer? Early Adolescence and Girls' Declining Interest in STEM

博士论文研究：谁想成为工程师？青春期和少女？尽管科学、技术、工程和数学[STEM]职业是美国收入最高、需求最大的工作之一，但STEM领域的男性人数几乎是女性的四倍。黑人和拉丁裔女性仅占STEM劳动力的4%。在中学，女孩开始对STEM失去兴趣和信心，只有13%的高中女孩报告数学是最喜欢的科目。现有的研究确定了性别陈规定型观念，或认为男孩“天生”更擅长STEM的信念，这是女孩对STEM科目和活动失去兴趣的首要原因。然而，现有研究中存在三个局限性：1）很少有研究探讨女孩在学校的日常经历如何塑造她们的职业抱负; 2）几乎所有女孩在中学结束时对STEM失去兴趣，但现有研究倾向于研究高中及以后STEM中的性别不平等; 3）很少有研究确定为什么以及如何来自边缘化背景的女孩失去了对STEM的兴趣。综合起来，确定有助于女孩的过程？在青春期早期对STEM的兴趣下降仍然是制定早期干预措施以增加女孩和妇女在STEM劳动力中的代表性的必要条件。该项目在加州一所种族多元化的公立中学进行了2.5年的纵向参与观察和170次对学生、教师和工作人员的采访，追踪了学生在六年级到八年级过渡时的职业抱负。以前的研究不仅有可能将儿童塑造成与性别和STEM有关的刻板印象的被动接受者，而且还有可能将性别与其他不平等体系隔离开来。超越这些限制，该项目强调了学生的互动在职业管道开始时在STEM中永久化不平等方面发挥的积极作用。除了促进性别，儿童，教育和工作奖学金，这个项目有可能创造丰富的STEM学习环境和增加妇女的代表性？尤其是边缘化背景的女性在STEM，从而有助于促进多元化和有竞争力的STEM劳动力。

Doctoral Dissertation Research: Who Wants to be an Engineer? Early Adolescence and Girls? Declining Interest in STEMAlthough science, technology, engineering, and mathematics [STEM] careers are among the highest paying and most in-demand jobs in the United States, men outnumber women in STEM by nearly four to one. Black and Latina women comprise a mere 4% of the STEM workforce. In middle school, girls begin losing interest and confidence in STEM, and only 13% of high school girls report math as a favorite subject. Existing research identifies gender stereotypes, or beliefs that boys are "naturally" better at STEM, as an overarching reason girls lose interest in STEM subjects and activities. However, there are currently three limitations within existing research: 1) Few studies have examined how girls' daily experiences in school shape their career aspirations; 2) Nearly all girls lose interest in STEM by the end of middle school, but existing research tends to study gender inequality in STEM during high school and beyond; 3) Few studies have identified why and how girls from marginalized backgrounds lose interest in STEM. When taken together, identifying the processes that contribute to girls? declining interest in STEM during early adolescence remains imperative to developing early interventions to increase the representation of girls and women in the STEM workforce.Drawing upon 2.5 years of longitudinal participant observation and 170 interviews with students, teachers, and staff at a racially diverse public middle school in California, this project traces students' career aspirations as they transition across sixth through eighth grades. Previous research not only risks constructing children as passive recipients of stereotypes pertaining to gender and STEM, but also risks isolating gender from other systems of inequality. Moving beyond these limitations, this project highlights the active role students' interactions play in perpetuating inequality in STEM at the beginning of the occupational pipeline. In addition to contributing to gender, childhood, education, and work scholarship, this project has the potential to create enriched STEM learning environments and increase the representation of women?especially women from marginalized backgrounds?in STEM, thus helping contribute to a diverse and competitive STEM workforce.