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Creating a World for Me: Students of Color Navigating STEM Identity
- Journal of Negro Education
- Journal of Negro Education
- Volume 88, Number 3, Summer 2019
- pp. 358-378
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract:
Undergraduate students of color (SoC) struggle to negotiate STEM experiences, which becomes a barrier to shaping identity and academic success. A qualitative research study was designed using a created figured worlds (FW) to observe how SoC used language to engage in activities for understanding and negotiating identities. Multiple frameworks was used to highlight the lived experiences of SoC in STEM including identity theory, FW, and intersectionality. Identity in FW demands consideration be given to the space, community, and present structures where identity work is produced. In this research SoC created ideas for new cultural models and built solidarity using multimodal communication. Twitter was useful for co-constructing ideas for new cultural models and critical for gaining agency for navigating STEM.