Postdoctoral Fellowship: STEMEdIPRF: Towards a Diverse Professoriate: Experiences that Inform Underrepresented Scholars' Perceptions of Value Alignment and Career Decisions

Some colleges and universities work to recruit individuals from underrepresented groups into faculty positions in STEM departments in ongoing efforts to create more diverse, effective, and inclusive learning environments for undergraduate and graduate students. While successful faculty recruitment efforts are essential for the Nation to meet STEM educational challenges, little prior research has focused on experiences that inform the decision-making processes of scholars who opt out of academic careers. This project will focus on scholars from underrepresented groups and recognize intersectionality, that is the interconnected nature of social identities such as race and gender intersectionality, as defined by Crenshaw. This postdoctoral research fellowship project is designed to deepen our understanding of the factors that contribute to decisions to opt out of academic careers. The proposed project aims to advance knowledge of the career choice processes for STEM scholars from underrepresented groups receiving terminal degrees and advance understanding of the experiences that inform those choices. Specifically, the project is designed to address the following research aims: 1) identify scholars’ values and the developmental experiences that informed those values within the context of families, communities, and cultures; 2) evaluate graduate school experiences that shaped scholars’ perceptions of the alignment or misalignment of those values with academia as a factor in employment interests; and 3) examine influences on scholars’ career decisions and values over time. To accomplish these aims, the investigator will conduct a longitudinal qualitative study to explore the career choice processes of scholars from underrepresented groups in chemistry graduate programs at universities across the country using phenomenographic methodology and guided by Social Cognitive Career Theory. This project is funded by the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.