IMPLICIT BIAS AND STEM EDUCATION: AN EXPLORATION OF GENDER AND RACIAL DISPARITY

The research study presented in this dissertation was the result of an exploration of the problem of gender enrollment disparities in STEM elective courses at the high school level in an independent school in the western United States, Western Regional School (WRS; a pseudonym). A review of the literature in chapter one revealed several factors contribute to gender, as well as racial/ethnic, disparities in the enrollment of STEM courses at the high school level as well as selection of STEM majors at the university level. Those factors include but are not limited to gender inequalities as displayed in both overt and explicit biases and implicit biases, U.S. gender norms and socialization, as demonstrated by gender stereotyping, and a lack of STEM role models which may affect STEM self-efficacy and STEM self-identities. The needs assessment focused on the investigation of STEM course enrollments during a 10-12 year period along with semi-structured interviews with influential WRS community adults such as teachers, academic advisors, deans, counselors, and administrators. The key findings showed evidence that while there were no significant gender disparities in the enrollment of required STEM courses at WRS, there were significant disparities in the selection of specific STEM electives including physics-based, computer science, and advanced mathematics courses. The needs assessment informed the design of an intervention professional development (PD) program focused on implicit bias as it pertains to gender and race/ethnicity and science performance for educators and academic advisors at WRS. The intervention PD was developed around Bandura’s social cognitive theory of reciprocal determinism. The researcher conducted a mixed methods convergent parallel design study to evaluate the intervention PD program. The eight-session PD program ran for a total of four synchronous and four asynchronous sessions and showed that the participants’ awareness of both what implicit bias meant in general and their own level of individual biases increased. Additionally, with that increased awareness came motivation to change teaching and advising practices in the form of a call to action. These educators and academic advisors shared their plans and priorities to focus on mitigating their own implicit biases, especially as it related to their enrollment discussions with students and classroom practices. Their self-efficacy as academic advisors, on the other hand, did not appear to be significantly improved as a result of the intervention program, but it should be noted that that result may have more to do with the structure and duties of WRS academic advisors and not because of the design of this specific intervention PD program. The findings of this study suggest that the PD program could support the increased awareness of implicit bias around gender and race/ethnicity and a call to action in the broader adult community of WRS, especially all faculty and staff