부산대학교 도서관

Prior studies have demonstrated that STEM students with LGBTQ+ identities feel marginalized in STEM spaces and refer to the climate as chilly and heteronormative. One salient theme in prior literature is social technical dualism, which is the separation of technical and social aspects of STEM that typically excludes social aspects from STEM education experiences. The mechanisms that perpetuate social-technical dualism, and therefore a heteronormative STEM culture, are not yet well understood. The purpose of this analysis was to understand how social technical dualism is perpetuated or maintained in undergraduate STEM spaces through the experiences of LGBTQ+ STEM students at a large research-intensive institution in the southwest. We conducted focus groups (n=3) and individual interviews (n=3) with these characteristics and thematically coded the interview transcripts. We found three main themes pertaining to the perpetuation of the social-technical dualism in STEM: modeled professionalism, silence, and identity concealment. In modeled professionalism, we explore how heteronormative professionalism is modeled by professors, teaching assistants, and faculty researchers. These are referred to as dominant figures in STEM, or figures who play a large role in shaping how LGBTQ+ students view STEM values. Dominant figures in STEM typically reinforce the chilly, heteronormative culture of STEM by showing how straightness is a key aspect of professionalism in STEM. However, our findings also show that dominant figures have the ability to drastically change LGBTQ+ students' perspective of professionalism. We also explore how LGBTQ+ students face a culture of silence in STEM environments, unable or unwilling to give voice to their discomfort. LGBTQ+ students experience a lack of solidarity from their peers, contributing to a silent, chilly experience in STEM classrooms and lab environments. Our third theme, identity concealment, investigates how students conceal their LGBTQ+ identities as a mechanism for survival in STEM. A lack of LGBTQ+ dominant figures in STEM, a culture of silence, and reinforcement that straightness is a professional requirement in STEM has perpetuated a cycle of identity concealment, where students without visible LGBTQ+ role models in their field feel less comfortable in their ability to safely come out in STEM spaces. On the other hand, some participants expressed that having an out mentor has encouraged them to persevere in their field and resist heteronormative professionalism in STEM environments. Our findings suggest that representation in dominant figures in STEM is one way to disrupt the culture of silence in STEM. Understanding the mechanisms that perpetuate social-technical dualism in STEM is paramount to creating inclusive, safe environments for LGBTQ+ students in STEM. We suggest ways in which dominant figures in STEM, such as professors, teaching assistants, and faculty researchers can disrupt the chilly, heteronormative culture of STEM by modeling inclusive classroom and lab practices. Additionally, we offer insights on how students negotiate their identity visibility in a chilly, heteronormative, and silent culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]