Exploring Identity Formation of Minority Women in STEM through International research experiences

Okonkwo Holly O, Norwalk CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. This postdoctoral fellowship provides an emerging scholar-scientist with an opportunity to explore the ways participation in international research shape the academic and personal development of women from underrepresented backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Over the past decade, there has been a steady increase in the rate of international research collaboration and the representation of international students and scientists within the United States. Science, now more than ever, requires the ability to navigate global and local networks of people, technologies and places. Concurrently, the underrepresentation of women of color in STEM fields is well documented and has been framed as a challenge impacting our ability to solve the complex problems of our times and represents a loss of talent and expertise. This research provides insights into international research programs as an innovative strategy towards broadening participation in STEM. The findings of this project will contribute to the development of effective strategies to prepare U.S students to enter the emerging globalized STEM workforce. The project entitled, Exploring Identity Formation of Minority Women in STEM through International Research Experiences, explores the ways transnational research experiences shape the identity formation of women from underrepresented backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics(STEM) fields. More specifically, this research examines the ways in which varying cultural contexts of scientific inquiry may inform these experiences and the complexities of identity formation across the intersections of race, gender, class, and what it means to be a scientist through the cultural and material practices of contemporary international science agendas and networks. This project takes a multi-sited approach combining participant observation, free-listing, semi-structured and structured interviews and experimental research. The primary objectives are to (1) examine the ways women from underrepresented backgrounds negotiate and contest multiple ways of knowing, being and becoming (2) categorize the responses and strategies the women in this study adapt to navigate both global and local scientific networks, and (3) explore emerging models of social organization and collaboration in transnational STEM research. This research aims to advance our understandings of ways the cultural constructions of race and gender are reconfigured, challenged and preserved in the context of transnational STEM education and research. In addition, the findings of this study are expected to contribute to the development of strategies towards not only increasing gender, racial and ethnic diversity within the STEM disciplines, but also preparing students for the rapid globalization of research and technology development.