2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Choosing Self-Care and Preservation: Examining Black Women STEM Faculty’s Decision to Pursue Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship Education Programming

Presented at Equity, Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY) Technical Session 6

Despite recent STEM diversity initiatives, there still exists structural barriers on who can pursue their STEM aspirations. The lack of diversity in STEM fields hinders individual self-actualization and economic advancement as well as STEM innovation efforts. Notably, Black women remain underrepresented in STEM higher education and academic entrepreneurship. The goal of this project is to increase the understanding of the entrepreneurship-related experiences of Black women in STEM higher education. Specifically, we examine how the erasure and marginalization of Black women in STEM academic entrepreneurship contributes to their minoritization in STEM. In doing so, we seek to identify ways to improve their experiences in STEM higher education and entrepreneurial spaces. Relying on Collins’ (1990) domains of power framework, the following question guides the study: To what extent do everyday encounters and practices of marginalization in STEM higher education and entrepreneurial education spaces shape Black women’s engagement in STEM entrepreneurial education programming? To answer this question, we conducted semi-structured interviews (n=7) of Black women faculty in STEM higher education who have engaged or not engaged in entrepreneurship education programming. These conversations reveal the various ways Black women navigate in and outside of entrepreneurship education programming to innovate their fields.

Authors

Meaghan Pearson University of Michigan [biography]

Meaghan Pearson is a PhD candidate in the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan. She received her BA in Statistics and Sociology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her research interests center around using Black feminist frameworks to explore how STEM learning environments shape the experiences of individuals who are historically excluded and minoritized.
Dr. Prateek Shekhar http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6552-2887 New Jersey Institute of Technology [biography]

Prateek Shekhar is an Assistant Professor - Engineering Education division at New Jersey Institute of Technology. His research is focused on examining translation of engineering education research in practice, assessment and evaluation of dissemination initiatives and educational programs in engineering disciplines. He holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, M.S. in Electrical Engineering from University of Southern California and B.S. in Electronics and Communication Engineering from India.
Jacqueline Handley Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE) [biography]

Jacqueline Handley is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Engineering Education at Purdue. Her background is in Material Science and Engineering, with an emphasis on Biomaterials Design. She is interested in, broadly, how best bridge engineering prac
Dr. Joi-Lynn Mondisa http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-3959-6548 University of Michigan [biography]

Joi Mondisa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering and an Engineering Education Faculty Member at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.

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