CAREER: Black Girl Brilliance and STEM Identity Development

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The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. This project awarded to a CAREER scholar has the goal to explore the ways in which Black girls develop positive science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) identities as they matriculate through secondary education at a single-gender middle/high school. This project integrates research and education by creating and disseminating culturally relevant resources for teachers, parents, and students through free platforms. This award is supported by the EHR Core Research program which supports fundamental STEM Education research initiatives. This project is a research-practice partnership study between Georgia State University and the Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy – a STEM certified single gender school in Atlanta, GA predominantly serving girls of color. Using the Multidimensionality of Black Girls’ STEM Learning conceptual framework (King & Pringle, 2019), the study will explore how Black girls exude brilliance in STEM learning spaces, and their intent to enroll in college and pursue a STEM trajectory. This longitudinal study employs a mixed methods approach utilizing multilevel modeling to investigate changes in STEM identity constructs over time, and logistic regression to reveal which variables predict whether or not a student declares a STEM major. Individual interviews, reflection journals, and blog posts inform the construction of counter-stories that challenge essentialist views of Black girls’ STEM learning experiences. The intellectual distinction of this work unearths identity development in science, technology, engineering and mathematics for a collective understanding of Black girls’ STEM identity development across the intersections of four distinct disciplinary content areas.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.