Abstract:

Despite the diverse gender, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds of Harvard students studying Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), the demographics of professors who teach these STEM courses are still predominantly white and male. Previous researchers and educators have shown that largely due to stereotype threat (stereotypes associated with academic outcomes of a particular race or gender), a student’s racial and gender identity directly influence their perception of ability and resulting performance in STEM fields. Additionally, educators— including at the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard—have demonstrated how inclusive teaching practices can instill in students greater confidence to achieve in the immediate classroom setting and increase their sense of belonging in STEM. However, much less is known about how the gender and racial identity of the teaching staff affects students. My research  focuses on this question: How does gender and racial diversity of teaching staff in STEM courses at Harvard affect students’ classroom experience and beyond? Through quantitative survey results, I found that students who shared either a gender or a racial background with their STEM teaching staff had an improved immediate classroom experience and felt a higher sense of belonging in that STEM department than students who did not share such a background with their STEM teaching staff. Students who shared a gender background with their professor were also more likely to view their professor as a role model. These sentiments were further explored in my interviews with students. Students felt that it was important to have STEM instructors of a shared background because they believed these instructors innately employed better teaching strategies to accommodate students of different backgrounds, were more empathetic to minority students’ struggles and increased their sense of departmental belonging, and also served as strong role models and “future selves” for students of diverse backgrounds. My results show that there is an urgent need for increasing the diversity of STEM teaching staff at Harvard: doing so improves students’ classroom experiences and sense of belonging, while prolonging such a process would be detrimental to all students.

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