Changing the Graduate School Experience: Impacts on the Role Identity of Women

Transcription

1 Changing the Graduate School Experience: Impacts on the Role Identity of Women Background and Purpose: Although the number of women earning Bachelor s degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematic (STEM) disciplines has increased in recent years, the rate at which women earn Ph.D.s is not increasing at a corresponding pace. Using physics as an example (the phenomenon is similar for chemistry and engineering), the number of women graduating with Bachelor s degrees in physics increased from 15% in 1991 to 25% in The growth in the number of first-year graduate students exhibits similar increases; however, the number of Ph.D.s awarded to women has remained stagnant at 13% during this period of growth (Hollenshead, Youncey, & Wenzel, 1994: Dresselhau, Franz, & Clark, 1995). Graduate school remains a major leak in the pipeline. The National Science Foundation s Graduate K-12 program (GK-12) was designed to make future STEM leaders aware of the issues challenging K-12 education. Nationwide, the representation of women in GK-12 is impressive: in 2002, 55% of the graduate students involved in the program were females, which is significantly higher than their representation in the STEM graduate pool. Project Fulcrum is one of 118 GK-12 programs. In the academic year, 80% of the graduate students involved in Project Fulcrum were female. Current data does not address whether the overrepresentation of women in this program one that was not designed for or targeted explicitly to women is due to the specific characteristics of this program; however, descriptive data show that many of the features inherent to Project Fulcrum are likely to be more responsive to the mode of self-definition of women as described by Lyons (1983). The GK-12 program provides researchers the ability to study whether those aspects of the program that make it attractive to women could be transferred more broadly to graduate programs, thus making them more responsive to women and addressing the pipeline leak at the graduate-student level. This study describes the meaning of being and becoming a scientist as held by eight women graduate student scientists who participated in Project Fulcrum. Four research questions were asked: (a) What motivated these women graduate-student scientists to participate in Project Fulcrum? (b) How do these women graduate student scientists identify their role as a scientist? (c) How do these graduate student scientists balance their professional/personal identities? And (d) Do these women feel fulfilled, and what aspects of their experience contribute to this feeling? Theoretical Framework: Women s Identity Development: Identity theory is a microsociological theory that focuses on the self as a collection of identities, each of which is based on a particular role (Stryker, 1968). The roles we occupy are referred to as role identities (e.g. mother or scientist ). Each role brings with it a set of associated meanings and expectations for the self. The various role identities that a person holds exist in a hierarchy of salience, which refers to how much importance we place on each role. The most highly ranked roles are most likely to be invoked in situations of conflict between different role identities (Stryker, 1968). Our understanding of gender differences in human development and identity formation is expanding. Lyons (1983) expanded on Gilligan s (1979, 1982) work by testing the hypothesis that males and females use two different modes of self-definition. Her empirical study revealed that women more frequently use characterizations of a connected self, while men more frequently use characterizations of a separate/objective self (Lyons, 1983, p. 40). The connected

2 self defines oneself in terms of (1) response to others, (2) a concern for the good of others, (3) the activity of care, and (4) interdependence. Studies increasingly identify and understand how the differences in these two models of the self influence men and women s hierarchy of salience and how each gender deals with the conflict between role identities. There are similarities in how men and women rank their various roles, but also differences in their understanding of the conflict between these roles (Thoits, 1986). Further understanding of how women define and rank their roles is necessary to understand how this impacts their graduate school experience. Sociocultural Constructivist Theory: In addition to Identity theory, the second theoretical underpinning for this investigation was sociocultural constructivist theory. This theory advances how social and cultural interactions influence an individual s creation of understanding (Wertsch, 1991; Vygotsky, 1978; Steffe & Gale, 1995). The focus of this orientation is not on the individual learner, but on learning as participation in a socially constructed world or context. Communities of practice, which involves common activities, goals, and methods for reaching those goals, provide this structure (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Members of the community of practice make decisions about their participation and act on those decisions (Giddens, 1979). Although members are guided by historical precedence, they have the ability to introduce new practices, which may change the visions of other community members. The ability of a member to change the community of practice creates a tension referred to as the dialectic of practice (Giddens, 1979; Lave & Wenger, 1991). Participation in Project Fulcrum changes the graduate student s perception of the graduate school experience, giving value to practices and understandings more compatible with females modes of self-definition. These values must be merged with the traditional practices inherited from the home STEM department. Research Design: An exploratory case study design guided this study (Creswell, 2003). A case study is defined as an exploration of a "bounded system" (an event, process, or individuals) over time through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information (Creswell, 1998; Yin, 2003). Case studies are particularly appropriate for understanding the details and complexity of a situation (Stake, 1995). The case examined in this study represents the group of participating individuals, bounded by time and by place. Eleven graduate student candidates, eight females and three males, were selected to receive one-year fellowships in Project Fulcrum during the academic year. The focus of this study was to present the experience of women scientists; thus, all of the eight women participants were recruited. Three types of qualitative data collection techniques were used in this study: focus group interviews, written documents, and individual correspondence. Focus group interviews were the main data source for this study. Four longitudinal focus-group interviews were conducted as a means to explore how participants' perceptions changed over the course of their participation in the Project Fulcrum program. Written documents that naturally occurred as part of participation in Project Fulcrum were included as important data sources. Specific questions related to this study were developed and sent via to clarify participant responses from the focus-group interviews and written documents. All data collected in this study were saved in text format and entered in an N6 database, a qualitative data analysis software package (QSR N6). Two strategic methods - direct interpretation and categorical aggregation - were used to analyze the data (Stake, 1995). After

3 reading documents thoroughly, the researchers identified thirty-five (35) codes directly from the data. These codes were assigned to text segments by the researchers using the N6 software. In the second stage of analysis, the initial codes were aggregated into eight categories to identify patterns. Results and/or Conclusions: Four major themes guided the data analysis: Motivation, Fulfillment, Role Identity, and Balance. A brief overview of the findings from this analysis follows. Motivation: Five categories of reasons led women graduate-student-scientists to participate in Project Fulcrum: 1) Being an inspiration to students. Most of the scientists expressed their passion for sharing their interests, love and enthusiasm for science and math with elementary and middle school students. 2) Generating student interest in science at an early age. Most scientists saw a great need to generate interest in science in the early years of student lives. 3) Enhancing their teaching abilities. Most scientists expressed their desire to improve their teaching skills so as to make science-related subjects more understandable and more applicable. 4) Wanting interactions with younger students. All of the scientists mentioned that they enjoyed working with children. And, 5) Looking for a change. Most of scientists mentioned something like it would be nice to do something different for a year, such as to work with the younger kids. Fulfillment: Program participation has brought personal and professional fulfillment to scientists. At the personal level, being a role model for kids has made scientists aware of their behavior and such awareness has led to self-improvement. Also, Working with kids and teachers made scientists feel that they were being wanted and valued. They saw it as a nice reminder that You are with someone who values your work and your presence. At the professional level, these experiences have helped them to gain confidence as scientists. In addition, all scientists felt that their work with students and teachers reinforced their desire to be scientists and their confidence in their abilities. Demonstrating science to kids has confirmed that science is worth doing because it could make such a difference in someone s point of view how to observe, think, and discover the world around them. Also, working with younger children has provided the scientists with some insight into how they might reach more college students who have difficulties with math or science. Role Identity and Balance: The third theme of role identity and the fourth theme of balance were identified from the research question, but emerged from the data analysis as conjoined twins. According to the participants, being a scientist, having a personal life, and being a woman with a family do not constitute separate categories (i.e. separate roles ). Thus, theme three and theme four are reported as a combined category to best represent the voice of the participants. Scientists described what they characterized as a traditional, or stereotypical, view of a male scientist. They also mentioned female scientists in old days were just like those male scientists. These women have no families. Most of them end up bitter and mean. Scientists emphasized that this traditional view is not how they define a scientist. People are beginning to accept that scientists are real people too, which means a scientist may have a family and a life besides science. Also, at least some of the professors that our participants are working with agreed and even supported the idea of having a personal life besides having a career. While our participants have replaced the traditional stereotype of scientists with a broader definition that includes having a personal life, their individual search for balancing professional

4 and personal aspects of their careers is a primary concern. All participants agreed with one statement, I want to have a life besides my career. For most of the participants, however, what they termed the emotional challenge is more difficult to deal with than the overwhelming work load. To these women scientists, it wasn t so much the capability issue can you pass the classes, jump through the hoops; but rather the emotional challenge are the trade-offs worth the end result? Program participation has a significant effect on balancing responsibilities. Participants reported that time is very much shared among working with middle school children, graduate school classes, research projects and home. One concern all scientists had was not being able to work for a continuous amount of time to get things done. Educational Importance of Study: The overwhelming male origins of the STEM fields resulted in a graduate school experience that is constructed around the assumptions about work, careers, family roles and productivity that ignore the reality of women s lives (Hollenshead, 1996). This has resulted in a chilly climate for women in graduate school (Hollenshead, Younce, & Wenzel, 1991; Dresselhau, Franz, & Clark; 1995). The findings from this study were used to expand on the existing knowledge of recruiting and maintaining women in graduate science programs. The conclusions reveal aspects of Project Fulcrum that make it less chilly to female graduate students, as well as aspects that may ultimately have negative impacts. These understandings have been utilized to develop several hypotheses on addressing this leak in the pipeline.

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