College of Education
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item Framing Engineering: The Role of College Website Descriptions(MDPI, 2017-12-31) Da Costa, Romina B.; Stromquist, Nelly P.This study contributes to the literature on women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by examining the framing of engineering on college websites, a major recruitment tool. We take websites to be key sources of textual data that can provide insights into the discourses surrounding the field of engineering. We ask whether women-only institutions (WOIs) frame engineering in ways that appeal more broadly to women. Our sample comprises the full range of WOIs offering engineering degrees in the US (14) and a comparison sample of 14 coeducational universities also offering engineering degrees. We employ established methods for discourse analysis, and both deductive and inductive coding processes in analyzing the textual data. Our main findings indicate that WOIs’ framing of engineering places a greater emphasis on collaboration, supports for students, interdisciplinarity, and the potential for engineering to contribute to improvements for society. In contrast, co-ed institutions tend to place a greater emphasis on the financial returns and job security that result from majoring in engineering. We conclude that co-ed engineering programs should consider a broadening of the descriptions surrounding the engineering field, since the inclusion of a wider set of values could be appealing to women students.Item Science resource inequalities viewed as less wrong when girls are disadvantaged(Wiley, 2022-08-08) Sims, Riley N.; Burkholder, Amanda R.; Killen, MelanieIn response to some resource inequalities, children give priority to moral concerns. Yet, in others, children show ingroup preferences in their evaluations and resource allocations. The present study built upon this knowledge by investigating children's and young adults’ (N = 144; 5–6-year-olds, Mage = 5.83, SDage = .97; 9–11-year-olds, Mage = 10.74, SDage = .68; and young adults, Mage = 19.92, SDage = 1.10) evaluations and allocation decisions in a science inequality context. Participants viewed vignettes in which male and female groups received unequal amounts of science supplies, then evaluated the acceptability of the resource inequalities, allocated new boxes of science supplies between the groups, and provided justifications for their choices. Results revealed both children and young adults evaluated inequalities of science resources less negatively when girls were disadvantaged than when boys were disadvantaged. Further, 5- to 6-year-old participants and male participants rectified science resource inequalities to a greater extent when the inequality disadvantaged boys compared to when it disadvantaged girls. Generally, participants who used moral reasoning to justify their responses negatively evaluated and rectified the resource inequalities, whereas participants who used group-focused reasoning positively evaluated and perpetuated the inequalities, though some age and participant gender findings emerged. Together, these findings reveal subtle gender biases that may contribute to perpetuating gender-based science inequalities both in childhood and adulthood.Item SHATTERING THE COLLEGIATE GLASS CEILING: UNDERSTANDING THE EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN STUDENT GOVERNMENT PRESIDENTS(2019) Davis, Kristen Rupert; Griffin, Kimberly A; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In the last few decades, leadership skills have arisen as a core part of undergraduate education. The general outcomes associated with leadership skills in college include decision-making skills, increased cognitive complexity, and navigating group dynamics and relationship building (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). While leadership skills are derived from a variety of experiences on campus, positional leadership experiences help students develop concrete and specific outcomes associated with self-confidence, the development of a sense of competence higher levels of psychosocial development, a stronger ability to clarify their purpose in life, and greater aptitude for career planning and life management (Astin & Leland, 1991; Foubert & Grainger, 2006). In particular, serving as the president of a student organization has been associated with increased self-efficacy and growth in perceived leadership ability specifically for women (Bardou, Bryne, Pasternak, Perez, & Rainey, 2003; Dugan, 2006; H. S. Astin & Kent, 1983). However, women less likely to reap these gains, as they are less likely to take on positional leadership roles in college (Stevens, 2011). This is especially apparent in high-ranking leadership role like student government president. The purpose of this study was to better understand women college students’ journey to and through being a student government president, and whether and how gender and sexism influenced their presidential experiences. Case study methodology and a narrative approach to data collection was used to answer four research questions. Participant interviews garnered 5 themes including: (a) Systemic Issues of Diversity and Inclusion on Campus, (b) Catalysts, Influencing Factors, and the Impact of Identity on Running for Office, (c) Impact of Leadership Style, Assumed Biases, and External Feedback on Women Leaders, (d) External Expectations of Image and Presentation, and (e) Relationships with Administrators. Findings from this study suggest that more research on women in leadership in both college and in the workforce is necessary. They also suggest that administrators and campus community members need to be cognizant of bias and stereotypes when engaging with women student leaders. Lastly, findings indicate that issues of inclusion and diversity on campus impact how women engage in leadership roles on campus.Item EXPLORING THE DIMENSIONS OF GENDER AND STUDENT EPISTEMOLOGIES IN A REFORMED LEARNER-CENTERED ORGANISMAL BIOLOGY COURSE: A MIXED METHODS APPROACH(2019) Klosteridis, Jennifer Hayes-; Hultgren, Francine; Croninger, Robert; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Gender and student epistemology play a role in how students interact with STEM content and knowledge development in the classroom and may influence the retention of women in the sciences. Reform agencies have called for changes to the undergraduate biology curriculum to produce students with high level quantitative and critical thinking skills. As educators seek to reform college biology courses to align with policy maker recommendations, it remains important to consider how these dimensions influence student learning of reformed content and pedagogy. This mixed methods study explored the dimensions of gender and epistemology as they related to student learning in a reformed learner-centered organismal biology course at a large east coast university. Pre-test and post-test epistemological survey results and qualitative interview data collected over two semesters by Hall (2013) were analyzed. The results indicated that there was no significant relationship between gender and student epistemologies at pre-test or post-test on the MBEX I instrument or in 3 of the 4 epistemological clusters. Both women and men experienced significant positive shifts on the instrument overall and in two clusters of the survey instrument. Specifically, women and men became more sophisticated in their view of the structure of biological sciences knowledge as composed of principles, and how biology knowledge should be constructed rather than memorized. Qualitative findings, however, suggested that gender and level of epistemological sophistication played a role in how women and men experienced the reformed content and pedagogy in the course. Specifically, women expressed resistance to the inclusion of physical science content in the course, while most men expressed receptivity. This study is unique in that it explored the interplay between gender and epistemology as it related to course content and pedagogical reform. Through integration of the quantitative results and qualitative findings, the study concluded that the reformed learner-centered course was successful at creating more epistemologically sophisticated men and women who viewed biological knowledge as principles-based and developed a belief that biological knowledge is a process of knowledge construction. The results also suggested that women had a more favorable response to the active learning pedagogy. Gender may have created a potential resistance to the inclusion of other disciplinary perspectives and content in the course. The results and findings add to the higher education curriculum reform and instruction literature by providing some insight into how student epistemology and gender may influence faculty efforts to develop courses that align with national reform efforts.Item WOMEN FACULTY AGENCY: A CASE STUDY OF TWO UNIVERSITIES IN RUSSIA(2019) Kuvaeva, Alexandra; Stromquist, Nelly P; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of the study was to explore professional and personal challenges experienced by women faculty in Russia and analyze organizational factors that influence their sense of agency. Expanding on O’Meara, Campbell & Terosky (2011) theoretical framework on agency, this research suggests differentiating two forms of agency experienced by women faculty in Russia, professional agency and personal agency. Professional agency is shaped by a woman’s strong confidence in her capacity in professional fulfillment. Personal agency reflects a woman’s confidence to build relationships in her family that help her manage multiple roles in her personal and professional life, therefore, producing a strong mediating effect on professional agency perspectives and behavior and work satisfaction. The use of structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed strong positive effects of organizational factors such as promotion procedures, collegiality, workload distribution policies and practices, resources and support, and work-family balance factor on women’s agency perspectives and behavior, and a strong effect of agency behavior on faculty outcomes such as academic rank promotion and leadership opportunities, research productivity and overall satisfaction with their careers. The SEM model did not find gender differences in the above relationships, suggesting that the effect of organizational factors on faculty agency and outcomes is significant regardless of gender. Survey data also provided a broader picture of work environments of the two institutions and helped to gain understanding of which aspects of faculty work reveal significant differences by gender, rank, discipline, and type of institution, and whether women faculty in Russia feel more or less agentic than men faculty. In addition to pre-defined categories of organizational factors that influence faculty career, interviews with women faculty created space for emerging themes of issues shaping women experiences in their work environments and helped to identify what agentic perspectives and behaviors women faculty assume in their career that are pertinent to the Russian context.Item A GENDER ANALYSIS OF ENGINEERING PHD STUDENTS’ CAREER DECISION-MAKING PROCESS USING A BOUNDED AGENCY MODEL(2019) da Costa, Romina Bobbio; Stromquist, Nelly P.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This qualitative research study applies a bounded agency model in investigating the career decision making process of engineering PhD students at a large, public research university in the United States. Through a gender analysis of the career decision-making of men and women PhD students in engineering, this study sheds light on the reasons why men and women choose different career trajectories in engineering, with implications for diversifying the professoriate. This study highlights the ways in which men and women PhD students in engineering experience the university as an institution differently, and form different impressions of the academic career. The bounded agency model allows for a holistic examination of the organizational barriers, as well as the individual level dispositions and characteristics that work to limit the range of feasible alternaives and choices for men and women as they make their career choices. The findings provide insight into the career decision-making of men and women PhDs as an iterative process of information gathering, crystallization of values, and narrowing down of options. Gender differences are outlined at each stage in this process, providing a framework for furthering understanding of other underrepresented populations in the professoriate. Additionally, the findings have implications for graduate education in engineering, and for PhD student career development and choice, both in the United States and beyond. keywords: agency, bounded agency, career choice, career development, diversity in STEM, engineering education, gender, graduate student agency, graduate student experience, higher education, STEMItem WHAT'S CULTURE GOT TO DO WITH IT? AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE INDIVIDUAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS THAT SUPPORT UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITY AND FIRST-GENERATION WOMEN GRADUATE STUDENTS' SUCCESS IN STEM FIELDS(2018) DeCrosta, Lauren Ashley; Stromquist, Nelly; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This qualitative research study applies feminist standpoint theory and community cultural wealth to investigate the individual and institutional factors that underrepresented minority and first-generation women graduate students report as having contributed to their gaining access to and navigating through their graduate STEM degree programs. Through the presentation of five women graduate students’ testimonios, this study offers the women participants an opportunity to provide a counternarrative in their own voices to the prevailing deficit lens with which education literature views them. This study highlights the ways in which the assets from the women’s community cultural wealth, although overlooked by their graduate institution, are instrumental to their success. In addition, this study asks the women participants to share their perceptions of the institutional resources and services available to them and evaluate their utility in supporting them. The women’s narratives are testimonios to their experiences as underrepresented minority and first-generation women graduate students in STEM fields. The findings both provide a counternarrative to the deficit literature on underrepresented minority and first-generation women students in STEM fields and add to the literature that uses Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth as a conceptual framework by expanding its application to other underrepresented populations in the United States and to advanced, highly technical STEM fields. Additionally, the findings have implications for educational practice and further research: they suggest that universities need to better understand the multiple aspects of students’ individual cultures and reconfigure their campus and STEM classroom cultures in ways that are structured by and reflective of students’ community cultural wealthItem WHO AM I?: MEDIA INFLUENCE ON THE GENDER CONSTRUCTION OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS(2018) Lawrence, Angela S; Valli, Linda R; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While gender construction and identity occur across many years of childhood and early adulthood, it is in the adolescent stage when children ask the question, “Who am I?” In this study, I examine the ways media, as well as parents and peers, influence adolescent gender construction. Because of my interest in environments that seek to minimize media exposure, I situated the study in an alternative school setting. My main research question asked, “In what ways do students perform gender in a school environment that shapes interactions with media in particular ways?” To ensure that the investigation considered multiple perspectives, I examined students’ use of media at home and at school; how parental values regarding their children’s media use related to gender performance, values, and ideals; and, lastly, how gender performance at the school compared to what we know about gender performance in traditional environments. Previous research has examined messages students receive about expectations for gender performance in typical, media-saturated environments, but there is little on gender performance in alternative educational settings, a gap this study seeks to fill. Moreover, this study aims to advance the understanding of gender performance in a setting which encourages minimal exposure to media, defined for the purposes of this study as television, videos, movies, computers, gaming systems, radio, CDs, books, newspapers, and magazines. I employed an embedded case study method to examine gender performance as the overarching case, situating the media habits of six student participants as well as parent and staff perspectives as the sub-cases. Data collection included interviews, document collection, anecdotal notes, and classroom observations. Findings from the research demonstrate that when students are less attuned to the societal norms and stereotypes as expressed in mainstream media, they are more apt to express their individuality and perform gender in confident, unapologetic ways that felt comfortable and natural to them. I also present findings and implications from the study with regard to the ways student participants utilize media for socialization and skill-building purposes and the ways parents and students navigate differing opinions on appropriate and inappropriate media content.Item A Multilevel Analysis of the Relationship between Physical Education Requirements and Student Academic Achievement in High School(2015) Kim, Sang Min; Valli, Linda R.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Although national recommendations and guidelines have called for schools to play a greater role in enhancing physical activity through physical education to prevent sedentary lifestyles or physical inactivity of children and adolescents, many schools have reduced or eliminated physical education time or programs despite state or district mandates. These policies and practices are often part of schools’ efforts to increase students’ standardized test scores given the pressures of accountability reforms in education. Guided by Argyris and Schön’s (1974) theory of action, the effectiveness of schools’ policies and practices of decreasing or eliminating physical education time or programs to improve students’ academic achievement was tested in this study. In particular, this study aimed to examine the relationship between schools’ physical education graduation requirements and students’ academic achievement growth in reading, mathematics, and science in high school settings. To this end, the study used a multilevel analysis from a large, nationally representative sample of U.S. high schoolers from the NELS database. Results showed that time requirements of physical education for graduation were either positively or neutrally related to student academic achievement growth in mathematics and science while time requirements of physical education for graduation had only a neutral relation to student academic achievement growth in reading, after controlling for student, family, and school characteristics. Also, there were gender differences in the relations between time requirements of physical education for graduation and student academic achievement growth in mathematics and science with no gender difference found in reading. Overall, although there was not strong evidence that more time requirements of physical education for graduation were associated with higher student academic achievement growth, the findings of this study indicate that certain time requirements of physical education for graduation are positively associated with student academic achievement growth especially in mathematics and science. The findings of the study further imply that increased time requirements schools set aside for physical education for graduation do not decrease or compromise student academic achievement growth in the three core high school subjects.Item An Exploratory Examination of the Factors Contributing to the Increasing Presence of Women Presidents in Maryland Community Colleges(2014) Martin, Amy Beth; O'Meara, KerryAnn; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Many women faculty build their academic careers in the community college environment but are reluctant to consider, and face barriers to pursuing, the presidency in those same environments. The percentage of women presidents in Maryland two-year colleges has been increasing since 1989 and has been above the national average of women presidents in associate's institutions since 1998. This study is about the collective presence of women presidents in the 16 Maryland community colleges using embedded units of analysis. Utilizing feminist standpoint theory and Bolman and Deal's four organizational frames, this exploratory case study examined the factors that contributed to the comparatively high numbers of women presidents at Maryland community colleges. The methods used included interviews, analysis of trend data, and analysis of archival documents. The findings from this study suggest that the comparatively high number of women community college presidents in Maryland was the result of several interrelated factors that mitigated or removed gendered barriers for women academic leaders who were pursuing community college presidencies in Maryland. Significant factors related to each of this study's conceptual frameworks contributed to the high number and increasing appointments of women community college presidents in Maryland between 1989 and 2012. First, Maryland's abundant labor market, educational attainment trends among women, pipeline of potential women applicants in Maryland community colleges (faculty, chief officers) and geography (proximity between community colleges) proved to be strong structural factors. Second, national and regional leadership development opportunities, intentional and pervasive mentoring of women community college leaders at Maryland community colleges, and non-traditional approaches to presidential searches by Maryland community college boards of trustees were strong human resource factors, particularly between 1989-2006. At the same time, strong alliances among women legislators, political activists, and higher education leaders between 1989 and 2006 proved to be significant political factors. Additionally, Maryland's perceived progressive state politics and MACCs collaborative organizational structure were strong cultural factors that attracted women community college academic leaders from outside the state and provided a collective community college culture that supported the development of women presidents and academic leaders in Maryland community colleges. Finally, women community college academic leaders' agency (personal and collective) around balancing family (gendered work norms), pursuing critical experiences in preparation for the presidency (career aspirations), and owning collaborative and constructive leadership orientations (gendered leadership norms) were strong feminist/gendered factors that contributed to this phenomenon.