Examining Urban Students’ Constructions of a STEM/Career Development Intervention Over Time

Abstract

Using consensual qualitative research, the study examines urban high school students' reactions to a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) enrichment/ career development program, their resources and barriers, their perspectives on the impact of race and gender on their career development, and their overall views of work and their futures. The sample included nine students who participated in a semistructured interview at the end of the 2-week summer program and again 12-18 months later. The results indicate that the students continued to explore STEM fields after the summer program, reported increases in STEM knowledge, described strong identifications with their racial and gender-based identities, and identified relevant resources and barriers affecting their STEM education and career development. Suggestions for further research and program development are discussed, including the development of interventions to enhance the supportive elements of students' relational and educational contexts.

An investigation of African-American women's prestige domain interests and choice goals using Social Cognitive Career Theory

“…Finally, we note the potential for future intervention research with African American samples, similar to recent work focused on increasing participation in STEM occupations (Blustein et al, 2013;Cordero, Porter, Israel, & Brown, 2010).…”

What are we talking about when we talk about STEM education? A review of literature

“…Encourages taking of STEM degrees (Blustein et al, 2013;McLurkin et al, 2013;Tseng et al, 2013;Shahali et al, 2017). Predisposes students for learning thanks to the solving of problems, the use of technology and cooperation (Evans et al, 2014).…”

“…Regarding the dominant role that could be exercised by science (21%; n = 4) or technology (16%; n = 3), it is common for them to adopt such relevance from the solving of real-world problems in the case of science (e.g., Marle et al, 2014), or virtual contexts in the case of technology (e.g., Toth, 2016). Moreover, it has been impossible to identify which of the STEM disciplines could exercise a dominant role in the educational intervention developed by Blustein et al (2013), given that they neither explain the content addressed nor how it was studied throughout the educational experience. It is also important to analyze the level of detail that the authors offer on the disciplines and the content studied during the educational intervention.…”

“…These studies reveal series limitations in the description of the teaching intervention, to the extent that we have identified two situations: (a) contents studied in the intervention are not made clear (e.g., Blustein et al, 2013;Kim et al, 2015); and (b) the description of the procedures and other essential details for understanding the link between the different content studied and, therefore, between the STEM disciplines, is excessively superficial (e.g., Beckett et al, 2016;Caglar et al, 2015;Won et al, 2015). In this manner, these studies project a diffuse image of STEM education that could irredeemably generate more confusion in educational practice regarding this teaching approach.…”

Journal of Career Development: Recommendations for Future Journal Practices for Integrating Career Theory, Research, and Practice

“…Using participatory action research methods, Drs. Ellen McWhirter, Krista Chronister, and David Blustein are exemplars for how this can be done, and products of their research in communities have appeared in JCD (e.g., Blustein et al, 2013;Chronister, Harley, Aranda, Barr & Luginbuhl, 2012;McWhirter, Luginbuhl, & Brown, 2014). It is time consuming to develop these relationships, but these researchers have demonstrated the value of this approach in producing findings that are driven by the needs of the community and that provide rich and meaningful implications for best practices.…”