Intellectual Merit: Career choices are the result of a complex process and are influenced by a myriad of factors: 1) social-contextual influences such as classroom environment and culturally shared gender stereotypes, 2) person-attribute characteristics such as math and science ability and personal gender schemas, and 3) life goals, especially those related to work, marriage, and family. The individual making a career decision must integrate information from all three areas, yet researchers rarely reach beyond constructs in their own research paradigm. This hinders the development of an explanation of why some capable girls choose science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers and others do not. This research integrates the three broad areas of research (social-contextual, person-attribute, and life goals) by systematically assessing the relative importance of these factors in career choices during four key educational transition points: Transition from grade school to middle school, transition from middle school to high school, at the end of high school, and at the start of college. Existing classroom programs are then mapped on to the research findings to identify strategies for promoting interest in STEM careers that are likely to be most effective at different points in education.
Broader Impacts: Research focusing on educational and developmental transitions especially benefits STEM education programs by matching these programs with the interests and needs of girls at different time points in schooling, connecting classroom practices to eventual STEM career choices. A main goal of this project is to inform educators about which classroom strategies and extracurricular programs are most effective for enhancing STEM career choices at different time points in education. With the assistance of an advisory panel, the research plan calls for the creation of a compendium that translates the research findings into key issues for supporting interest in STEM careers at different educational time points and identifies resources to address these issues. The end product is presented in the Classroom Connections Guide: Closing the Gender Gap that will be widely disseminated through professional development programs, teacher training, presentations at national professional meetings as well as to STEM college professors, deans, and administrative staff at the University of Alabama and other universities.
