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

博士论文研究：谁想成为一名工程师？青春期早期和女孩？尽管科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）职业是美国收入最高、需求最大的职业之一，但在STEM领域，男性的数量是女性的近四倍。黑人和拉丁裔女性仅占STEM劳动力的4%。到了中学，女孩们开始对STEM失去兴趣和信心，只有13%的高中女生表示数学是她们最喜欢的科目。现有的研究发现，性别刻板印象，或认为男孩“天生”更擅长STEM，是女孩对STEM学科和活动失去兴趣的首要原因。然而，目前现有的研究存在三个局限性：1)很少有研究考察女孩在学校的日常经历如何影响她们的职业抱负；2)几乎所有女孩在中学结束时都对STEM失去了兴趣，但现有的研究倾向于研究高中及以后STEM中的性别不平等；3)很少有研究确定来自边缘背景的女孩为什么以及如何失去对STEM的兴趣。综合起来，确定对女孩有贡献的过程？青少年早期对STEM兴趣的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。该项目对加州一所多种族公立中学的学生、教师和工作人员进行了长达2.5年的纵向参与者观察，并对170名学生进行了采访，追踪了学生从六年级到八年级的职业抱负。以往的研究不仅有将儿童塑造成性别和STEM刻板印象的被动接受者的风险，而且有将性别与其他不平等制度隔离开来的风险。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中持续存在不平等方面发挥的积极作用。除了为性别、儿童、教育和工作奖学金做出贡献外，该项目还有可能创造丰富的STEM学习环境，并增加女性的代表性。尤其是来自边缘背景的女性？，从而有助于形成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.