Exploring STEM Environments that Broaden Participation

About this Research Topic

Background

Creating spaces conducive for all students pursuing degrees in STEM is a constant conversation in higher education. Studies establish the need for broad participation in STEM and the barriers in place that prevent matriculation through critical junctures. Through these studies, several suggestions and recommendations suggest supporting students through advising, mentoring, and research experience. Very little is discussed about the tools and strategies needed to enhance students own development of self-efficacy and self-identity through mentorship in formal environments like the lab, classroom, and departments, but also in informal STEM environments like bridge programs, organizational involvement, and mentoring groups. While the environments seem very different, the mission of dynamic approaches to student progression is apparent. Furthermore, understanding how the support evolves at each critical juncture is critical to the way in which the future of STEM will advance.

Research shows that several practitioners position mentoring as the core of establishing Student self-efficacy to move forward through critical junctures in the academic journey (high- school – undergraduate, undergraduate - graduate, graduate - early career/post-educational experiences). Others suggest community building in accepting environments establishes the support necessary to pursue higher education and the STEM workforce. Therefore, the goal of this Research Topic will be to investigate the social aspect of community building and mentorship in informal and formal environments and the impact they have on minimizing the effects of critical junctures.

In order to accurately showcase findings, advances, and developments that promote student self-efficacy growth, researchers and practitioners are invited to contribute studies that uncover approaches to dismantling barriers of critical junctures and that offer novel research that increases student development and desire to pursue higher education and the STEM workforce. This call welcomes manuscripts that investigate student support and mentorship from critical aspects including through conventional educational structures, ranging from the classroom to eccentric methods that question the traditional methods for supporting marginalized students through significant stages of student's academic journey in STEM. Research themes can include (but are not limited to):

• Students acclimation to STEM through informal connections and its impacts on their success.

• Identifying and/or connecting role models/mentor’s relevance in developing self-efficacy in STEM

• Impacts of critical junctures on students based on gender biases

• High-impact practices for bolstering self-efficacy in STEM

• New methodologies to study Critical Junctures or ending evidence of the value of mentoring in STEM

• Organizational involvement in developing STEM identities and/or matriculation

Keywords: STEM, Critical Junctures, Self-Efficacy, Awareness, STEM Learning Environments, Mentorship, Broaden Participation

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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