TY - JOUR
T1 - STEM is not a monolith
T2 - A preliminary analysis of variations in STEM disciplinary cultures and implications for change
AU - Reinholz, Daniel L.
AU - Matz, Rebecca L.
AU - Cole, Renee
AU - Apkarian, Naneh
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 D. L. Reinholz et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education and The American Society for Cell Biology.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Research suggests that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments are a productive unit of focus for systemic change efforts. In particular, they are relatively coherent units of culture, and cultural changes are critical to creating sustainable improvements. However, the STEM disciplines are often treated as a monolith in change literature, and unique aspects of these different disciplinary cultures—and consequences for change efforts—remain somewhat underdeveloped. This exploratory study focuses on similarities and differences among STEM disciplinary cultures, drawing on data gathered from scholars in discipline-based education research who attended two sessions at the 2017 Transforming Research in Undergraduate STEM Education conference. Our analyses of these data help begin to characterize disciplinary cultures using the theoretical lens of four frames: structures, symbols, power, and people. We find preliminary evidence for both similarities and differences among the cultures of STEM disciplines. Implications for change efforts and future directions for research are discussed.
AB - Research suggests that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments are a productive unit of focus for systemic change efforts. In particular, they are relatively coherent units of culture, and cultural changes are critical to creating sustainable improvements. However, the STEM disciplines are often treated as a monolith in change literature, and unique aspects of these different disciplinary cultures—and consequences for change efforts—remain somewhat underdeveloped. This exploratory study focuses on similarities and differences among STEM disciplinary cultures, drawing on data gathered from scholars in discipline-based education research who attended two sessions at the 2017 Transforming Research in Undergraduate STEM Education conference. Our analyses of these data help begin to characterize disciplinary cultures using the theoretical lens of four frames: structures, symbols, power, and people. We find preliminary evidence for both similarities and differences among the cultures of STEM disciplines. Implications for change efforts and future directions for research are discussed.
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U2 - 10.1187/cbe.19-02-0038
DO - 10.1187/cbe.19-02-0038
M3 - Article
C2 - 31702951
AN - SCOPUS:85074712895
SN - 1931-7913
VL - 18
JO - CBE life sciences education
JF - CBE life sciences education
IS - 4
M1 - mr4
ER -