Excellence in Research: Understanding How College Instructors Shape Student Belonging and Success in Science and Engineering at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

This project aims to serve the national interest by advancing understanding of how college instructors shape the experiences of students in STEM classrooms, particularly for those enrolled at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) which are institutions with a longstanding record of preparing students well for careers in STEM fields. The ability to build a highly skilled STEM workforce depends in part on learning environments that foster growth and persistence. Yet a pervasive “culture of genius”, the belief that only those innately talented can succeed in STEM, may undermine student motivation, sense of belonging, and achievement. While research shows that instructors’ beliefs about intelligence matter, both the mechanisms through which those beliefs are transmitted to students and how students perceive intended and unintended messages are still poorly understood. The disconnect between what instructors intend to communicate and what students experience is significant. The project plans to generate evidence that can inform how higher education instructors create more adaptive and growth-oriented STEM classrooms, contributing to NSF’s mission to strengthen the STEM pipeline. The project also aims to support the HBCU-EiR program intent through building research capacity across participating HBCUs through faculty co-authorship and cross-institutional collaboration. The goals and scope of this project center on three interconnected aims: identifying which instructional practices most effectively communicate growth-oriented beliefs to students, examining the degree of misalignment between instructor intent and student perception, and exploring how contextual factors unique to HBCUs shape these dynamics. The project plans to employ a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design approach across seven HBCUs. Phase one includes administering validated surveys to HBCU STEM faculty and students to measure instructor beliefs and pedagogical practices as well as student perceptions of classroom climate, sense of belonging, psychological vulnerability and academic outcomes. The project team plans to use multilevel modeling and multilevel structural equation modeling to identify which practices most strongly predict student perceptions, test whether a perceived “brilliance climate” mediates the association between instructor practices and student outcomes, and assess how faculty-student alignment moderates these effects. In phase two, a purposive sample of faculty members and students will be expected to participate in interviews and focus groups to identify the contextual mechanisms underlying alignment and misalignment patterns. The project also plans to test the Brilliance-Belonging Model (Bauer et al., 2025) in HBCU contexts, extending theory into institutional settings recognized for their affirming and community-centered approach to STEM education. The project plans to disseminate findings through peer-reviewed publications, national and international conference presentations, and open-access faculty development resources. The project aims to contribute to actionable, evidence-based strategies for cultivating growth-oriented STEM climates at not only HBCUs but also across higher educational institutions. This project is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Historically Black Colleges and Universities-Excellence in Research (HBCU-EIR) Program. HBCU-EIR supports research at public and private HBCUs to strengthen their research capacity and promote engagement with NSF. 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.