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Home – HERE Center – Resources – Critical Race Theory Resources – Fields Of Study – STEM Education

STEM Education

Sentences that come directly from the article are in quotation marks. CSUN students, faculty, and staff can access most articles through the University Library using CSUN credentials. Please use the library’s interlibrary loan services if an article of interest is not available.

Baber, L. D. (2015). Considering the interest-convergence dilemma in STEM education. The Review of Higher Education, 38(2), 251–270. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2015.0004

  • Using data collected from qualitative interviews with STEM diversity administrators at 10 research-intensive, public universities, this study uses Derrick Bell’s interest-convergence concept to analyze institutional STEM diversity efforts. “Administrators find limited opportunities to challenge structural practices that marginalize underrepresented students in STEM.”

Blosser, E. (2020). An examination of Black women's experiences in undergraduate engineering on a primarily White campus: Considering institutional strategies for change. Journal of Engineering Education, 109(1), 52–71. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20304

  • Informed by CRT and sociological theories of race, Blosser conducted interviews with 12 Black women studying engineering at one university. Common themes that emerged include “an acute sense of isolation, grappling with hypervisibility, difficulties forming study groups, and regular exposure to microaggressions.”

Braun, D. C., Gormally, C., & Clark, M. D. (2017). The deaf mentoring survey: A community cultural wealth framework for measuring mentoring effectiveness with underrepresented students. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 16(1), Article 10. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.15-07-0155

  • The authors describe the development of a next-generation mentoring survey built upon capital theory and CRT. The survey targets relationships between deaf mentees and their research mentors and includes Deaf community cultural wealth. The authors identified 4 segregating factors from findings: being a scientist, deaf community capital, asking for accommodations, and communication access.

Bullock, E. C. (2017). Only STEM can save us? Examining race, place, and STEM education as property. Educational Studies: Journal of the American Educational Studies Association, 53(6), 628–641. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2017.1369082

  • Bullock uses Whiteness as property, a tenet of CRT, to examine STEM education in Memphis as a case of urban STEM-based education reform in the U.S. Bullock describes “claiming STEM education as property as a 2-phase process in which middle-class Whites in urban areas participate to secure STEM education by repurposing failed Black schools and to maintain it by institutionalizing selective admissions strategies.”

Collins, K. H. (2018). Confronting color-blind STEM talent development: Toward a contextual model for Black student STEM identity. Journal of Advanced Academics, 29(2), 143–168. https://doi.org/10.1177/1932202x18757958

  • Collins examines background information regarding STEM achievement and persistence followed by empirical studies that explore STEM attitudes among Black students at various educational levels. Two models, Whiting’s Black Male Scholar Identity and Ford’s Female Achievement Model for Excellence, are highlighted as particularly promising models to inform Black students’ STEM identity.

Dancy, M., Rainey, K., Stearns, E., Mickelson, R., & Moller, S. (2020). Undergraduates' awareness of White and male privilege in STEM. International Journal of STEM Education, 7(1), Article 52. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-020-00250-3

  • College seniors (N = 183) were asked about their experiences of being a STEM major in relation to race and gender. The authors use “science as White property” to frame this study. Findings show that White men were largely unaware of any impact of race or gender. In contrast, women of color overwhelmingly reported that both race and gender impact their experiences as STEM majors. Students who acknowledged race and gender impacts did not always attribute these impacts to cultural or systemic factors.

Eastman, M. G., Christman, J., Zion, G. H., Yerrick, R. (2017). To educate engineers or to engineer educators?: Exploring access to engineering careers. JRST, 54(7), 884–913. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21389

  • This study examines efforts of a prominent technical university to attract and retain urban high school graduates through a tuition scholarship program. The authors discuss “the trajectories of recruited urban high school graduates and explore students’ reasoning behind their choice of STEM majors.” Findings reveal “unforeseen obstacles prohibiting students from pursuing STEM degrees despite free tuition and other benefits of the diversity recruitment program.”

Eastman, M. G., Miles, M. L., & Yerrick, R. (2019). Exploring the White and male culture: Investigating individual perspectives of equity and privilege in engineering education. Journal of Engineering Education, 108(4), 459–480. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20290

  • This longitudinal qualitative study investigates the experiences of one longtime engineering professor who was confronted with conceptions of his own privilege while he was enrolled in a doctoral program.

Ireland, D. T., Freeman, K. E., Winston-Proctor, C. E., DeLaine, K. D., McDonald Lowe, S., & Woodson, K. M. (2018). (Un)Hidden figures: A synthesis of research examining the intersectional experiences of Black women and girls in STEM education. Review of Research in Education, 42(1), 226–254. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X18759072

  • The authors examine intersectionality in STEM education and provide a new interpretation of the literature on Black women and girls in this social context from a psychological perspective. A synthesis of (N = 60) research studies revealed four key themes: “(1) identity; (2) STEM interest, confidence, and persistence; (3) achievement, ability perceptions, and attributions; and (4) socializers and support systems.”

Joseph, N. M., Hailu, M., & Boston, D. (2017). Black women’s and girls’ persistence in the P–20 mathematics pipeline: Two decades of children, youth, and adult education research. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 203–227. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X16689045

  • This review uses CRT and Black feminism as interpretive frames to explore factors that contribute to Black women’s and girls’ persistence in the mathematics pipeline and the role these factors play in shaping their academic outcomes. “A synthesis of 62 research studies reveals that structural disruptions, community influences, and resilience strategies significantly influence Black women’s and girls’ persistence in mathematics.”

Joseph, N. M., & Jordan-Taylor, D. (2016). The value of a triangle: Mathematics education in industrial and classical schools in the segregated south. Journal of Negro Education, 85(4), 444–461. https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.85.4.0444

  • Guided by CRT, this article discusses findings from a larger ongoing study that examines the math and science education of African Americans from 1854 to 1954 during segregation. The overarching research question was, “What type of mathematics education experiences did Blacks living in the South have during de jure segregation?”

King Miller, B. A. (2017). Navigating STEM: Afro Caribbean women overcoming barriers of gender and race. SAGE Open, 7(4), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017742689

  • The author examines the experiences of Panamanian Afro Caribbean women in STEM and their successful navigation of race and gender barriers related to education and employment in STEM. Findings reveal that “socio-cultural values and strategies from their Caribbean community provided the support needed to build a positive self-identity.” In addition, middle-class values also supported their persistence through STEM education and careers.

McGee, E. O., & Martin, D. B. (2011). “You would not believe what I have to go through to prove my intellectual value!” Stereotype management among academically successful Black mathematics and engineering students. American Educational Research Journal, 48(6), 1347–1389. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831211423972

  • Stereotype management is characterized as a tactical response to ubiquitous forms of racism and racialized experiences across school and non-school contexts. Interviews with 23 Black math and engineering college students reveal that “although stereotype management facilitated success in these domains, the students maintained an intense and perpetual state of awareness that their racial identities and Blackness are undervalued and constantly under assault within mathematics and engineering contexts.” With age development and maturity, the students “progressed from being preoccupied with attempts to prove stereotypes wrong to adopting more self-defined reasons to achieve.” Thus, stereotype threat is not deterministic.

Ong, M., Jaumot‐Pascual, N., & Ko, L. T. (2020). Research literature on women of color in undergraduate engineering education: A systematic thematic synthesis. JEE, 109(3), 581–615. https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20345

  • This study analyzes research on women of color in undergraduate engineering education to determine what influences their experiences, participation, and advancement. Informed by intersectionality, CRT, and community cultural wealth, the authors conducted a systematic thematic synthesis of 65 empirical studies. Findings show that “women of color use navigational strategies to address the social pain of race and gender inequity in engineering education.”

Ong, M., Smith, J. M., & Ko, L. T. (2018). Counterspaces for women of color in STEM higher education: Marginal and central spaces for persistence and success. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 55(2), 206–245. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21417

  • Using CRT and intersectionality theory and drawing on interview data from 39 women of color about their STEM higher education experiences, the authors describe ways in which counterspaces function as havens for women of color from isolation and microaggressions. They conclude that counterspaces vary in terms of the race/ethnicity, gender, and power levels of participants.

Park, J. J., Kim, Y. K., Salazar, C., & Eagan, M. K. (2020). Racial discrimination and student–faculty interaction in STEM: Probing the mechanisms influencing inequality. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000224

  • Using a sample of 778 STEM undergraduates from the National Longitudinal Study of Freshmen, the authors use structural equation modeling to investigate the direct and indirect relationships between key student variables, racial discrimination from faculty, student–faculty interaction, and college GPA among STEM undergraduates. Results suggest that “students who interacted more frequently with faculty also were more frequently exposed to experiencing racial discrimination from faculty because of race/ethnicity, which hence negatively affected college GPA. In particular, Black STEM students with higher interaction with faculty were more likely to experience racial discrimination from professors, and student–faculty interaction only had a significant positive effect on college GPA for White students.”

Revelo, R. A., & Baber, L. D. (2018). Engineering resistors: Engineering Latina/o students and emerging resistant capital. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 17(3), 249–269. https://doi.org/10.1177/1538192717719132

  • This qualitative study examines how Latinx engineering students used their emergent resistant capital in their academic trajectories. Such capital enabled students to become engineering resistors by engaging in role modeling, doing community outreach, and resisting collectively.

Rincón, B. E., & Rodriguez, S. (2021). Latinx students charting their own STEM pathways: How community cultural wealth informs their STEM identities. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 20(2), 149–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/1538192720968276

  • Drawing on data from two qualitative studies of Latinx students pursuing STEM majors, findings reveal that Latinx students draw on at least six distinct forms of cultural assets to facilitate theirs, and at times their peers’, persistence in STEM. “Latinx students then utilize these cultural assets to develop culturally grounded understandings of themselves as STEM individuals.”

Rosa, K., & Mensah, F. M. (2016). Educational pathways of Black women physicists: Stories of experiencing and overcoming obstacles in life. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 12(2), Article 020113. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.12.020113

  • Grounded in CRT, this paper examines the lived experiences of six Black women physicists by addressing obstacles they faced in their career paths and strategies they used to overcome these obstacles. Findings reveal that “college recruitment and funding were fundamental for these women to choose physics over other STEM fields. In addition, Black women experience unique challenges of socialization in STEM, particularly by exclusion of study groups.”

Saetermoe, C. L., Chavira, G., Khachikian, C. S., Boyns, D., & Cabello, B. (2017). Critical race theory as a bridge in science training: The California State University, Northridge BUILD PODER program. BMC Proceedings, 11(Suppl. 12), Article 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12919-017-0089-2

  • This paper describes Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Promoting Opportunities for Diversity in Education and Research (PODER), an undergraduate biomedical research training program at CSUN based on transformative framework rooted in CRT. To challenge barriers and sustain campus changes in support of students, BUILD PODER works toward changing campus culture and research mentoring relationships. Preliminary evaluation data suggest that “BUILD PODER’s program has enhanced the racial/ethnic consciousness of the campus community, is effective in encouraging more egalitarian and respectful faculty-student relationships, and is a rigorous program of biomedical research training that supports students as they achieve their goals.”

Stinson, D. W. (2008). Negotiating sociocultural discourses: The counter-storytelling of academically (and mathematically) successful African American male students. American Educational Research Journal, 45(4), 975–1010. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831208319723

  • This study documents the counterstories of four academically and mathematically successful African American male students. The participants’ counterstories reveal that “each had acquired a robust mathematics identity as a component of his overall efforts toward success.” There was a recognition of himself “as a discursive formation who could negotiate sociocultural discourses as a means to subversively repeat his constituted ‘raced’ self.”

Van Dusen, B., & Nissen, J. (2020). Associations between learning assistants, passing introductory physics, and equity: A quantitative critical race theory investigation. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 16(1), Article 010117. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.010117

  • The authors examined the associations between learning assistant (LA) supported courses and equity in nonpassing grades [i.e., drop, fail, or withdrawal (DFW)] in introductory physics courses. Data came from 2312 students in 41 sections of introductory physics courses at a regional Hispanic serving institution. The authors developed hierarchical generalized linear models of student DFW rates that accounted for gender, race, first-generation status, and LA-supported instruction. They used a quantitative critical race theory (QuantCrit) perspective that focuses on the role of hegemonic power structures that perpetuate inequitable student outcomes. The models “associated LAs with overall decreases in DFW rates and larger decreases in DFW rates for Black, Indigenous, and people of color than their White peers. While the inequities in DFW rates were lower in LA-supported courses, they were still present.”

Walls, L. (2016). Awakening a dialogue: A critical race theory analysis of U.S. Nature of science research from 1967 to 2013. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 53(10), 1546–1570. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21266

  • Using CRT as a framework, this paper examines 112 nature of science (NOS) research peer‐reviewed studies conducted in the U.S. from 1967 to 2013. Results suggest that while White participants were being represented in the research, BIPOCs were disproportionally excluded as participants.

Watkins, S. E., & Mensah, F. M. (2019). Peer support and STEM success for one African American female engineer. Journal of Negro Education, 88(2), 181–193. https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.88.2.0181

  • This research uses counterstorytelling “to chronicle the lived experiences of one African American female PhD engineer as she recounted her undergraduate, master's, and doctoral STEM experiences at three postsecondary institutions.” Peer support was found to be a dominant factor in her attainment of a PhD in engineering.

White, A. M., DeCuir-Gunby, J. T., & Kim, S. (2019). A mixed methods exploration of the relationships between the racial identity, science identity, science self-efficacy, and science achievement of African American students at HBCUs. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 57, 54–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2018.11.006

  • Utilizing a Critical Race Mixed Methodology framework, this study investigates the relationships between the racial identity, science identity, science self-efficacy beliefs, and science achievement of 347 African American college students who attend HBCUs.
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