USD Faculty Speak Up About Underrepresentation in STEM in The San Diego Tribune
Faculty Stories :: Faculty and Staff :: Director's Note :: Graduate School
“Are you sure you are in the right class? This is the advanced course.”
“Maybe you should just go to community college. Those math classes at UC schools are really tough.”
These are just some of the stories told by the middle school, high school, undergraduate, and graduate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) students who come to the University of San Diego campus every summer for STEAM Academy.
In a recent opinion article in The San Diego Tribune, Rae M. Robertson-Anderson, professor and chair of the Physics and Biophysics Department at the University of San Diego and Joi A. Spencer, interim dean of the School of Leadership and Education Sciences and professor of mathematics education at the University of San Diego argue that despite perceived “improved gender equity”, harmful narratives around who can succeed in STEM affect students’ academic success as early as grade school.
Robertson-Anderson and Spencer posit that in order to change the dangerous narratives that lock women, girls, and minorities out of high-tracked STEM courses, we must uplift the research and discoveries of underrepresented groups.
Read the full article, Opinion: Underrepresentation of women, people of color in STEM stifling research discovery efforts, in The San Diego Tribune.