UC Santa Barbara

ABSTRACT

Exploring Latina and Hispanic Female Students’ Sense of Belonging in STEM Majors

Following a Belonging Intervention

by

Beatriz Del Carmen Bello

Significant imbalances in the representation of ethnic/racial and gender minorities in STEM fields continue to contribute to current and future socioeconomic inequities that threaten the U.S.’s future. The National Academy of Sciences (2006, 2007) suggests that without equal participation of women and diverse ethnic/racial individuals within STEM, the increasing demand for workers in these fields will threaten the U.S.’s position as a global innovator and leader. Specifically, those who identify as Hispanic are among the most underrepresented in STEM fields, even while Hispanics represent the largest growing minority group in the U.S. (U.S. Department of Education [U.S. DOE], 2014). Research exploring the low representation of Latinx2 and female students in STEM majors at the postsecondary education level, reveal experiences of an unwelcoming “chilly climate” among the factors explaining the low rates of degree attainment among these groups (Bonous-Hammarth, 2000; Flam, 1991). Experiences of low social connectedness encountered by Latinx and female students in STEM environments can have disproportionately large effects on sense of belonging, academic success, and retention (Walton & Cohen, 2007).

While the literature provides a good understanding of the factors that underrepresented minority students face that lead to lower retention rates in STEM fields (i.e. belonging), it has disproportionately ignored the added threats experienced by individuals with intersecting minority identities, as in the case of Latina students (Riegle-Crumb & King, 2010). More recently, researchers began attending to developing ways to remediate the psychological and social (psychosocial) issues that threaten belonging and persistence, through short interventions using implicit theories. This line of research seeks to promote protective factors which have shown initially promising results (Walton, Logel, Peach, Spencer, & Zanna, 2014), yet this literature also lacks an in-depth examination of the experiences of Latina students who have undergone these interventions. Gaining a greater understanding of the threats and protective factors at play for Latina students in STEM is an important avenue of exploration in light of the increasing rates of U.S. college graduation among Latinas (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2005).

The current study aimed to explore Latina participants’ experiences of belonging within STEM, after an intervention targeting their sense of belonging. Due to the significant lack of research exploring Latina students in STEM, the current study employed qualitative methodology to gain an in-depth understanding of Latina participants’ lived experiences. Four incoming first year students in STEM majors who self-identified as Latina/Hispanic female were recruited and interviewed about their experiences of belonging within their major, after completing a belonging intervention. A multiple case study design using Thematic Analysis was employed to provide an in-depth within and between case analysis of Latina participants’ experiences. The Latina students in this study described benefiting from positive messages regarding their abilities and capacity for growth needed to succeed in STEM. Participants described that receiving these messages through multiple avenues helped foster their own belief in their capacity for growth. Latina students’ description of how they dealt with challenges faced during their first year demonstrated use of sustained and proactive effort (incremental mindset). Each participant described some degree of commitment to improving and overcoming challenges through extended effort and proactive engagement when faced with challenges. Implications for future research interventions using incremental mindset with Latina students in STEM are discussed.

Keywords: Latina, STEM majors, sense of belonging, incremental orientation/growth mindset, entity orientation/fixed mindset, implicit self-theories