Marginality and mattering: Inequality in STEM majors’ relationships with higher education practitioners.

What is it about?

Higher education practitioners are a wide-ranging group of professionals often responsible for implementing programs and services that support student success. In this qualitative study, we examine the nature of student-practitioner relationships among a multi-racial sample of 39 STEM college seniors to address three questions: 1) How do STEM students describe their relationships with practitioners on campus?, 2) In what ways, if any, do student-practitioner relationships influence STEM students’ feelings of marginality and/or mattering in STEM?, and 3) To what extent do STEM students have different experiences based on their racial/ethnic identities?. We employ a cross-case study analysis approach, contrasting the experiences of majority-status (e.g., white and Asian/Asian American) and minoritized-status (e.g., Black/African American and Latinx) students within STEM contexts. Our findings show clear differences regarding how students describe their interactions with practitioners based on racial/ethnic background, as well as how student-practitioner relationships impact students’ sense of mattering and marginality in STEM. We conclude with implications for research and practice to address the persistent structural issues affecting STEM college students.

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Photo by Good Free Photos on Unsplash

Photo by Good Free Photos on Unsplash