51风流

Cultivating a Culture of Belonging in Science

Maria Ong, Ph.D.
Ong, M. (2024, July 7). Cultivating a culture of belonging in science. NSTA Blog. https://www.nsta.org/blog/cultivating-culture-belonging-science

Despite ongoing efforts to attract and retain students belonging to marginalized groups, including women of color, in STEM disciplines such as engineering, computer science, and physics, the numbers continue to fall severely short. According to the聽聽(2023), women comprise just less than 25% of bachelor鈥檚 degree earners in these fields, while women of color make up less than 6%. One major reason for the shortfall is that recruitment and retention efforts are often rooted in deficit models that seek to 鈥渇ix鈥 these students鈥攆or example by providing tutoring or teaching them 鈥渟elf-confidence鈥濃 rather than addressing the systemic, inequitable practices and culture that repel many of these students in the first place.