Board 179: Campus Climate, STEM Students: Examining Structural Obstacles for BW Student Success

Ahjah Marie Johnson; Samieh Askarian Khanamani; Mark Okoth Onyango; Whitney Gaskins

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Women in Engineering Division (WIED) Poster Session
Tagged Division: Women in Engineering Division (WIED)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/46742

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Paper Authors

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Ahjah Marie Johnson University of Cincinnati

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Ahjah Marie Johnson, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) is a postdoctoral researcher in the R.O.S.E. (Removing Obstacles in STEM Education) Lab at the University of Cincinnati. Ahjah received a B.S. in Public Health and M.A. and Ph.D. in Higher Education/Student affairs. As a primarily qualitative researcher, Dr. Johnson's agenda is to explore how disenfranchised groups navigate systems and practices and propose solutions to enhance equitable support structures to better the educational and workforce experiences of individuals.

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Samieh Askarian Khanamani University of Cincinnati

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I am Samieh Askarian Khanamani, a second year of Ph.D. student in Engineering Education from the University of Cincinnati. I have 10 years of experience as a vice principal and STEM teacher in STEM-based elementary schools and host of several workshops for kids and parents about engineering and hands-on activities in STEM. My research area is in PreK-12 and diversity. Have an engineering background in my Master's and Undergraduate.

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Mark Okoth Onyango University of Cincinnati orcid.org/0009-0003-0615-2187

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Mark Onyango is a graduate assistant in the Department of Engineering and Computing Education (DECE) in the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He earned his Master’s degree in Information and Communication Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology’s School of Electronics and Information Engineering in Harbin, China and holds a Bachelor of Education (Electrical Technology) from Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya. I am extremely passionate about teaching and public information dissemination. Creating a safe, friendly and productive environment for my target audience to learn is my top priority. With a strong background in electrical engineering, I am a meticulous python programming-based data analyst with vast experience working with a variety of synthetic aperture radar datasets, arising from my two years postgraduate research studies as a Master of Engineering student. A Critical thinker continuously looking at ways of improving teacher-student engagement processes, I am adept in organizing work flow, creating lesson plans, presenting ideas in a compelling way, interacting with the learners and fellow trainers with a view to improving content delivery across a range of engineering topics in a learner-based and hands-on approach. As such, I maintain professional boundaries while building lasting relationships.
My passion for teaching encompasses circuit analysis, electrical machines and digital electronics, courses delivered while working as an assistant lecturer in Kenya at The Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology, as well as Head of Subject, Physics at Kenyatta High School. The combination of my teaching and data analysis skills earned me a position at a child and women rights community-based organization, Champions of Peace-Kisumu (CoP-K), as a capacity building coordinator, a precursor to my new action-research interest. With work experience spanning engineering industry and teaching in technical and vocational education and training institutions, my research centers on underrepresented (URM) groups with a focus on efforts to advance solutions on broadening participation in engineering spaces, both in college and the workplace.

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Whitney Gaskins University of Cincinnati

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Dr. Gaskins is the Associate Dean of Inclusive Excellence and Community Engagement in the University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science, the only African-American female currently teaching in the faculty of the College of Engineering

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Abstract

In higher education, women's universities have notoriously provided a utopia for women college students to thrive (Alvarez,1995a). Specifically, women students feel at liberty to exercise their intelligence alongside their female counterparts (Tidball, 1980). Even more so, women undergraduate students have often regarded their academic programs to be stronger than women at coeducational colleges and universities (Tidball, 1980). This correlates with the increased representation of women faculty and the overall supportive mentality and collaborative environment fostered within a women's college. However, what has yet to be explored is the overall impact of women undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) specifically those who are members of an underrepresented minority group (URM), their identities, and the contributions to the campus climate towards racial diversity. Within the United States, most women’s colleges qualify as predominantly white institutions (PWI). Thus, women of color (WOC) who attend these institutions are situated in a space where they are not the majority, and their culture is not central. Consequently, they must conform (Collins et al., 2020) to the norms. Furthermore, WOC who attend women's colleges and pursue STEM-related degrees are not only situated in a predominantly white campus climate but in a field that lacks cultural and racial diversity (Collins et al., 2020). Using a case study analysis, the purpose of this study is to examine the mis/alignment of student needs and faculty perceptions at a women's college and a small university located in an urban city in the northeastern United States. In order to encapsulate and validate the issues of broadened participation, racial equity and cultural diversity through the combination of student experiences of the campus climate and faculty perception, a combination of student interviews and focus groups formed our data collection methods. Evidence shows the existence of an inherent disconnect between faculty perceptions and students' needs and the campus and curricular experiences of students. Premised on the ground that these contextual influences bi-directionally interact. The study demonstrates that STEM fields can leverage the utopia of women's universities to broaden their participation in STEM beyond gender while incorporating racial equity and cultural diversity when shaping an inclusive campus climate. The full paper will (1) describe the relationship between campus climate and STEM culture perceptions (2) demonstrate the influence of modern women’s universities in supporting women in STEM (3) examine the intersectional oppressions that women of color experience in STEM.

Citation
Format

Johnson, A. M., & Askarian Khanamani, S., & Onyango, M. O., & Gaskins, W. (2024, June), Board 179: Campus Climate, STEM Students: Examining Structural Obstacles for BW Student Success Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/46742

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - In higher education, women&#39;s universities have notoriously provided a utopia for women college students to thrive (Alvarez,1995a). Specifically, women students feel at liberty to exercise their intelligence alongside their female counterparts (Tidball, 1980). Even more so, women undergraduate students have often regarded their academic programs to be stronger than women at coeducational colleges and universities (Tidball, 1980). This correlates with the increased representation of women faculty and the overall supportive mentality and collaborative environment fostered within a women&#39;s college. However, what has yet to be explored is the overall impact of women undergraduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) specifically those who are members of an underrepresented minority group (URM), their identities, and the contributions to the campus climate towards racial diversity. Within the United States, most women’s colleges qualify as predominantly white institutions (PWI). Thus, women of color (WOC) who attend these institutions are situated in a space where they are not the majority, and their culture is not central. Consequently, they must conform (Collins et al., 2020) to the norms. Furthermore, WOC who attend women&#39;s colleges and pursue STEM-related degrees are not only situated in a predominantly white campus climate but in a field that lacks cultural and racial diversity (Collins et al., 2020). Using a case study analysis, the purpose of this study is to examine the mis/alignment of student needs and faculty perceptions at a women&#39;s college and a small university located in an urban city in the northeastern United States. In order to encapsulate and validate the issues of broadened participation, racial equity and cultural diversity through the combination of student experiences of the campus climate and faculty perception, a combination of student interviews and focus groups formed our data collection methods. Evidence shows the existence of an inherent disconnect between faculty perceptions and students&#39; needs and the campus and curricular experiences of students. Premised on the ground that these contextual influences bi-directionally interact.  The study demonstrates that STEM fields can leverage the utopia of women&#39;s universities to broaden their participation in STEM beyond gender while incorporating racial equity and cultural diversity when shaping an inclusive campus climate. The full paper will (1) describe the relationship between campus climate and STEM culture perceptions (2) demonstrate the influence of modern women’s universities in supporting women in STEM (3) examine the intersectional oppressions that women of color experience in STEM.  
AU  - Ahjah Marie Johnson
AU  - Samieh Askarian Khanamani
AU  - Mark Okoth Onyango
AU  - Whitney Gaskins
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Board 179: Campus Climate, STEM Students: Examining Structural Obstacles for BW Student Success 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/46742
ER  -