Breaking Stereotypes: How Undergraduates' Life Experiences of Scientists Shape their Scopes of Possibility.

ABSTRACT: Building on decades of scholarship critiquing scientist representation in classrooms and textbooks, the present study characterizes the lifetime experiences of undergraduate students regarding their perceptions of scientists and science identity. Informed by the theoretical framework of Cultural Learning Pathways (CLP), we conducted 31 semistructured interviews with undergraduates who completed six Scientist Spotlights (scientistspotlights.org), which are inclusive curricular supplements that feature counterstereotypical scientists. Despite decades of progress in curricular representation, our results revealed almost all students (94%, n = 29) recounted exposure to predominantly (if not exclusively) stereotypical scientists across social institutions (e.g., media, K12, universities,

SUBMITTER: Acosta-Parra AR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11659856 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature