CAREER: Stress, Resilience, and Persistence Factors that Impact Success of LGBTQ Undergraduate Students in STEM

The Texas A&M University System Hsc, College Station TX

Investigators

Abstract

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization, and to build a foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. This CAREER project examines the factors that influence LGBTQ undergraduate students’ decisions to continue in or leave STEM degree programs. Surveys of first-year STEM students are being conducted to enhance understanding of inhibiting factors to LGBTQ student success in STEM majors. Findings inform the development of resources to strengthen both LGBTQ STEM participation and the STEM infrastructure of the United States. An online cultural competency workshop is being developed for university STEM faculty and lab staff with the goal of increasing implementation of LGBTQ cultural competency practices in STEM classrooms and laboratories. Annual longitudinal surveys over four years and assessment of changes in classroom and laboratory practices provide the basis for this project’s findings. Survey instrument design is informed by the minority stress theory, which posits that adverse outcomes are attributable to external and internal experiences of discrimination that can be prevented by resiliency factors and supportive resources. The PI, in collaboration with members of a student advisory board and an expert advisory board, is exploring minority stressors, resiliency factors, and their relationship to persistence and attrition. This project is supported by NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. 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.