Mr Spock stereotypes ‘inhibit participation in STEM subjects’

Science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) disciplines need to work out how to combat the stereotype that its graduates are all like “Mr Spock” if they want to create a greater sense of belonging among students, according to the authors of a new book.

Belonging and Identity in STEM Higher Education warns that, despite rising enrolments and decades of efforts to promote diversity and inclusion, inequalities remain in terms of access, progression and success in STEM fields.

Co-editor Martyn Kingsbury, professor of higher education at Imperial College London, said widening participation efforts in STEM must go beyond “opening the door more widely”.

“If we want people to come in, we have to make STEM somewhere they want to come and can thrive and can add to and can benefit,” he told Times Higher Education.

The open-access book makes the case that students’ experiences within the wider academic community matter just as much as outreach and admissions.

“There’s an assumption that STEM is very cold and fact-based – the sort of Mr Spock scenario where everyone is non-emotional and it’s not a place where emotions play a part and belonging matters; that it’s all about the facts and the evidence-based way that people interact,” added Professor Kingsbury, who is also director of the Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship (CHERS) at Imperial.

“Obviously, that’s not true and never has been true. Science is a very collegiate, collaborative thing where people do get depressed and enthusiastic and all of those things…and belonging is really important.”

The book’s 17 chapters, from authors around the world, highlight current research and initiatives about how institutions can enhance and support belonging in STEM.

Much of the previous research in this area has been dominated by the arts and humanities subjects. Camille Kandiko Howson, co-editor and professor of higher education at Imperial, said that it was worth considering how STEM might need a different approach from other disciplines.

Professor Kandiko Howson said that the “logical and abstract and maths way of thinking could be the basis of belonging, and that can transcend a lot of social discrimination”.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from or what your accent is – if you’re connecting on that kind of abstract way your brain operates, a lot of those social determinants fall aside.”

She said that STEM disciplines needed to teach their subjects differently if they wanted to change who scientists are – removing some of the competitive practices that often further inequalities and focusing on team project working and active learning instead.

“Broadening the ways we measure success in STEM helps break some of that down and is more in line with how STEM is actually done – in teams and highly collaborative,” she added.

Professor Kingsbury said there was an assumption that those studying physics needed to feel “like a physicist”, for example – when in fact their stereotype was probably always five to 10 years out of date.

Instead, change was more likely to occur if those students had “skin in the game” and felt that they had joint responsibility, he added.

“Belonging is not about mimicry to join a sort of historic club, a caricature of an identity. It’s about belonging in an engaged way so you can co-create that identity, which is vibrant and dynamic and can change things, albeit slowly.”

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com