Description
This timely volume challenges the ongoing underrepresentation of Latina women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and highlights resilience as a critical communal response to increasing their representation in degree programs and academic posts.
An Asset-Based Approach to Advancing Latina Students in STEM documents the racialized and gendered experiences of Latinas studying and researching in STEM in US colleges, and centers resilience as a critical mechanism in combating deficit narratives. Adopting an asset-based approach, chapters illustrate how Latinas draw on their cultural background as a source of individual and communal strength, and indicate how this cultural wealth must be nurtured and used to inform leadership and policy to motivate, encourage, and support Latinas on the pathway to graduate degrees and successful STEM careers. By highlighting strategies to increase personal resilience and institutional retention of Latina women, the text offers key insights to bolstering diversity in STEM.
This text will primarily appeal to academics, scholars, educators, and researchers in the fields of STEM education. It will also benefit those working in broader areas of higher education and multicultural education, as well as those interested in the advancement of minorities inside and outside of academia.
Elsa M. Gonzalez is Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of Houston, USA.
Frank Fernandez is Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of Mississippi, USA.
Miranda Wilson earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Houston, USA.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Deborah Santiago
Introduction: An Asset-Based Approach to Advancing Latina Students in STEM: Increasing Resilience, Participation, and Success
Elsa M. Gonzalez and Miranda Wilson
PART 1: Examining Literature, Theory, and Data to Inform Policy
Chapter 1: Latinas in STEM: A Review of the Literature Using a Psychosociocultural Lens
Kristan M. Venegas and Araceli Espinoza-Wade
Chapter 2: Developing A Conceptual Framework for Computing Identity Development for Latina Undergraduate Students
Sarah L. Rodriguez, Charles Lu, and Daisy Ramirez
Chapter 3: The Pathway to the PhD: Latinas as STEM Doctorates from 1975–2010
Frank Fernandez, Hyun Kyoung Ro, Miranda Wilson, and Veronica Crawford
Chapter 4: "Cuida Tu Casa y Deja la Ajena": Focusing on Retention as a Self-Perpetuating Engine for Recruiting Latina Faculty in STEM
Aurora Kamimura
Chapter 5: How Many Latinas in STEM Benefit from High-Impact Practices? Examining Participation by Social Class and Immigrant Status
Sanga Kim, Selyna Pérez Beverly, and Hyun Kyoung Ro
PART 2: Reading (Hearing) Testimonios of Latinas in STEM
Chapter 6: Empowering Latina STEM Majors at a Public R1 Doctoral University and Hispanic-Serving Institution in Texas: Strategies for Success
Elsa M. Gonzalez, Mauricio Molina, and Sarah Churchill Turner
Chapter 7: First-Generation Latina Engineering Students’ Aspirational Counterstories
Tamara T. Coronella
Chapter 8: Latinas Undergraduates in Engineering/Computer Science on the US-Mexico Border: Identity, Social Capital, and Persistence
Erika Mein, Helena Muciño Guerra, and Lidia Herrera-Rocha
Chapter 9: "I Learned How to Divide at 25": A Counter-Narrative of How one Latina’s Agency and Resilience Lead Her Towards an Engineering Pathway
Dina Verdín
Chapter 10: Leadership through the Lenses of Latinas: Undergraduate College Students in STEM-Related Disciplines at Regional HSIs
Hilda Cecilia Contreras Aguirre, Rosa Banda, and Elsa M. Gonzalez
Chapter 11: "There Was Something Missing": How Latinas Construct Compartmentalized Identities in STEM
Ariana L. Garcia, Blanca Rincón, and Juanita K. Hinojosa
Afterword: Six Steps Forward for Studying Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEM
Frank Fernandez
