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

来自工人阶级家庭的非裔和拉丁美洲女学生在科学和技术领域，特别是计算机科学和工程领域的人数严重不足。由于超过50%的第一代，低收入的拉美裔和非洲裔美国妇女使用两年制大学作为四年制学位的切入点，很少有人真正完成这一途径，因此需要进行研究，以更好地了解这一途径以及途径内种族多样化的工人阶级妇女的经验。本研究采用混合方法短期纵向序贯设计。在15个月的时间内跟踪两个队列：1）75名社区大学学生被接受为转学到4年制大学攻读STEM学位，2）75名最近的高中毕业生首次进入社区大学。数据来源包括在组织层面的民族志访谈，并与家庭，大学和工作场所的背景下，个别访谈，辅导，文化资本和程序知识的定量调查的关键成人支持者。增长曲线模型跟踪文化资本和辅导随着时间的推移，定性数据被用来确定影响参与者在个人和组织层面的持久性的关键因素。深入的案例研究增加了对获取和维持辅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配合。智力优势：在四年制中学后阶段，有大量的研究考察学生？他们决定在攻读四年制大学学位的同时离开科学和技术领域。虽然过去的研究提供了一个重要的基础，检查保留，这项研究有助于显着的新知识，工人阶级妇女和变化，他们的过渡沿着社区大学途径，四年STEM学位。考虑到工人阶级妇女的复杂性？的教育途径，和外地？由于缺乏对这一人群和社区大学STEM途径的研究，这项研究提供了有关不同种族背景的工人阶级妇女持续存在的因素的新知识。更广泛的影响：这项研究的知识影响了工人阶级妇女的保留，通过提供组织（学院和大学）战略来帮助这些妇女追求STEM教育，有色人种学生占很大比例。此外，这项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，在一个研究经验。促进和加强社区学院和四年制学院之间现有的伙伴关系。传播工作包括开发一个供公立学校使用的网站、面向公众的报告、白色文件和期刊文章。

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.