CAREER: Investigating Undergraduate Student Persistence Intentions for a Diverse Data Science Community

Involving all citizens in science and innovation is key to technological advancement in the United States. The nation continues to face challenges in attracting and retaining underrepresented and minoritized (URM) students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and careers. The nation is experiencing rapid deployment of data-driven tools and technologies like generative AI and must be aware their potential harms, such as algorithmic biases. Thus, the lack of workforce diversity in data science (DS) is particularly concerning given the unprecedented influence of these technologies on social institutions. Despite projected shortages of DS workers, this trend presents an opportunity for non-STEM students to expand their career options into DS fields. Moreover, since the majority of URM students pursue non-STEM degrees, this population represents a significant untapped resource for the future DS workforce. This project will collect data from DS professors and URM undergraduate students to inform how URM students make decisions to persist in DS fields. The primary objective of this CAREER project is to explore the relationship between URM data science students’ racialized experiences and their persistence in the field, using these insights to broaden pathways into STEM for a more diverse segment of the student population. Using the Equity Ethics framework and Social Cognitive Career Theory, this project will: (1) document the impact of racialized experiences on the educational pathways of URM DS students through focus groups and a national survey of DS professionals; (2) interview DS program directors to assess how their institutions and programs either mitigate or perpetuate these barriers; and (3) identify concrete, practical approaches for broadening participation in data science and related fields (e.g., machine learning, artificial intelligence). The research design includes mixed methods, including interviews with university DS department chairs and large-scale surveys and focus groups with URM DS majors. This work aims to reshape how DS programs approach increasing the diversity of the DS workforce by expanding pathways into STEM for a broader, more diverse segment of the student population and expanding knowledge regarding what is known about diversifying an emerging field. This CAREER proposal is funded by the EDU Racial Equity in STEM Education activity, which is supported by the Directorate for STEM Education (EDU). This activity supports research and practice projects that investigate how considerations of racial equity factor into the improvement of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce. Awarded projects seek to center the voices, knowledge, and experiences of the individuals, communities, and institutions most impacted by systemic inequities within the STEM enterprise. Programs across EDU contribute funds to the Racial Equity activity in recognition of the alignment of its projects with the collective research and development thrusts of the four divisions of the directorate. 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.