In this chapter, we argue that intersectionality is a theoretical and methodological framework by which education researchers can critically examine why and how students in STEM fields who are members of intersecting marginalized groups have distinctive experiences related to their social identities, other psychological processes, and educational outcomes. Taken separately, the bodies of education research focused on the experiences of Black students and female students in STEM fields often render Black women and girls "hidden figures" in that they have not sufficiently addressed their simultaneous racialized and gendered experiences in educational contexts. Additionally, we find that the current discourse on intersectionality is limited in that it does not attend to key psychological processes associated with identity and the intersectional experience in STEM education. We take a theoretical and methodological approach to examining intersectionality in STEM education and provide a new interpretation of the literature on Black women and girls in this social context. A synthesis of (N = 60) research studies revealed that (1) identity;(2) STEM interest, confidence, and persistence; (3) achievement, ability perceptions, and attributions; and (4) socializers and support systems are key themes within the experiences of Black women and girls in STEM education. Our analysis also highlights the ways that researchers have employed intersectionality to make the experiences of Black women and girls in STEM education more visible, or "unhidden." We discuss these findings 759072R REXXX10.3102/0091732X18759072Review of Research in EducationIreland et al.: Experiences of Black Women and Girls in STEM research-article2018

Developing critical thinking skills has emerged as an explicit higher education and workforce priority. Not surprisingly, higher education generally and psychology in particular, grapple with best practices for teaching critical thinking. Should critical thinking be focused as a stand-alone course or integrated throughout the general education and major curricula? Learning narrative personality psychology promotes forms of critical thinking inherent in common practices in qualitative inquiry. A basic premise is that carefully designed reciprocity between pedagogy and content will also produce enhanced critical thinking. Thus, qualitative inquiry in psychology offers student outcomes representative of a high-quality undergraduate education. The purpose of this article is to describe a culturally responsive course design model developed for teaching and learning qualitative inquiry within an undergraduate core content psychology course. The course design model combines and applies active learning and critical thinking to teach personality psychology in an interactive lecture and final project learning lab course structure. The intention is to provide an immersion narrative personality psychology research experience, while also engaging students' learning about the full spectrum of the field of personality psychology. I will argue that personality psychology provides a natural opportunity to introduce students to one form of qualitative inquiry in psychology. Leading with a narrative personality theoretical focus allows students to see the use of qualitative inquiry as an organic research progression of observation of the human lived experience, theory, research questions, methodology, methods, and writing. The narrative tradition within personality psychology focuses on autobiographical memories, life story, psychobiography, and cases.

Although qualitative inquiry is gaining recognition and legitimacy in the discipline of psychology, the teaching of such approaches to research-and the scholarship of such teaching -remains under-developed, particularly with respect to undergraduate psychology programs in American and Canadian universities. We begin this special issue with a counter-example to the American and Canadian contexts with a focus on the advances and challenges evident in qualitative research training in the U.K. We then feature examples of teaching qualitative inquiry in undergraduate psychology programs at selected American and Canadian universities. These examples illustrate various ways in which such teaching can occur, e.g., as a stand-alone course(s); as integrated into an existing course in a psychology curriculum; and as a lab-based, team experience outside of a formalized course. Our goal with this special issue is to recognize ongoing achievements and to encourage the creation of new practices in the teaching of qualitative inquiry in our undergraduate psychology programs -all in the service of making the optional obligatory.

Abstract. Narrative identity is a person’s internalized and evolving life story. It provides a person with some degree of unity and purpose over the life course. It is shaped by the themes, plots, and images available within an individual’s culture. Research in narrative gerontology finds that positive themes within narrative identity in late life are sparse because of a pervading “narrative of decline,” which may contribute to prevalence of late life depression. Structured Life Review (SLR) is an effective intervention to manage depressive symptoms in older adults. It relies on clinician-guided storytelling and themes drawn from Erikson’s developmental stages to foster positive narrative identity. In this theoretical review, the authors explore gerotranscendence-related themes to inform narrative identity through SLR, the goal being to advance the argument that gerotranscendence can adaptively navigate negative narrative themes. It should be considered within clinical narrative practice to improve psychological well-being for older adults.

The purpose the present study is to explore African American undergraduate students' perceptions of their experiences and academic motivation within a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) learning environment. As part of a larger study, we collected 212 open-ended survey responses from first year students in STEM majors about how the HBCU context shapes their academic motivation. We used semantic thematic data analysis and found three major themes and corresponding sub themes that were salient in the development of students' academic motivation: place (institutional climate, HBCU mission and tradition, and absence of marginalization); pedagogy (culturally relevant pedagogy, positive faculty-student relationships, African American curriculum and instruction, racial socialization); and people (people “like me”; student, faculty and alumni models of high achieving African Americans). We discovered that HBCU institutional factors engendered academic motivation that is rooted in students' racial identity and suggest the construct of racial identity-rooted academic motivation. Given the important and unique realities of African American students that impact their educational experiences, engagement, identity development, and achievement in various types of school contexts, self and sociocultural variables must be included in research and theory on the motivational psychology of African American students. Implications for higher education practice and future research are discussed.