The Power of Storytelling and Participative Research in Evaluating a STEM Program Serving Adolescent Hispanic Females from Marginalized Areas in South Texas

Abstract Information: America's global competitiveness depends on continuous innovation and investment in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Although women comprise almost half of the U.S. workforce, they are severely underrepresented in the STEM sector, constituting 27%, with Hispanic females accounting for only 9%. The global COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the need for STEM professionals and the importance of using science and technology to develop new ways of communicating, interacting, and learning in a digital world. Conversely, the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted education, including the STEM in-class and extracurricular programs offered in marginalized school districts to help fill the STEM workforce pipeline and improve the local socio-economic conditions. The proposed program evaluation study will use a participatory research design emphasizing Storytelling to explore the STEM program design changes that encouraged and enabled continued participation for underrepresented students (adolescent Hispanic females) from two marginalized middle schools during and after the COVID-19 lockdown. Storytelling will be piloted with STEM camp participants in the summer of 2023 to examine how the support agent roles of parents, STEM teachers, and peers for Hispanic adolescent (grades 6-8) females impact continued program participation.

Relevance Statement: The research is important to help close the gender and ethnic gaps in STEM education and occupations, which can support improved socio-economic opportunities for underrepresented groups in the San Antonio community and throughout the U.S. The evaluation findings will improve program resource allocation, activities, processes, and outcomes for an extracurricular female STEM program offered by one private University in San Antonio with middle schools in marginalized San Antonio districts. It will inform school-based faculty and administrators to assess their school-based STEM program operations and resources. It will help validate factors that impact STEM interest and continuation with Hispanic adolescent females in building confidence and self-efficacy. The proposed evaluation study will use a participatory research approach instead of traditional research methods, emphasizing Storytelling to explore the STEM program design changes that encourage and enable continued participation for underrepresented students (adolescent Hispanic females) from two marginalized middle schools during and after the COVID-19 lockdown