An Exploration of Collaborative Learning Experiences for Black STEM Students

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

• An Exploration of Collaborative Learning Experiences for Black STEM Students
• Christen Priddie (bio)

Researchers continue to investigate the under-representation of Black undergraduate students in STEM majors. Hostile racial environments (George Mwangi et al., 2016) and the lack of culturally relevant resources (Johnson & Elliott, 2020) inform participation and persistence for Black students in STEM majors. There are increased pushes for faculty to foster more inclusive and equitable STEM learning environments, but not all STEM faculty buy into this vision. Some faculty view a perceived dissonance between STEM subjects and culturally relevant concepts (Fairweather, 2008), while others are resistant to race-conscious discussions, value objectivity, and uphold a Eurocentric lens (Haynes & Patton, 2019; McGee, 2020; Miriti, 2020). Buy-in from STEM faculty is critical to create and sustain equitable and inclusive pedagogical practices, but it is also important to assess whether students are initiating these collaborative experiences on their own, given faculty resistance. Therefore, one way to assist STEM faculty hesitant to introduce equitable pedagogical practices into their classrooms is to reassess a practice they likely already implement, such as collaborative learning.

Collaborative learning is an instructional method designed to foster interactions among students in small groups working to achieve a similar goal (National Survey of Student Engagement, n.d.). The incorporation of collaborative learning and other active learning techniques has been used to counter the competitive and individualized "chilly climate" STEM culture perpetuates (Kennedy & Odell, 2014). Moreover, increasing the quality of collaborative learning experiences can work to improve Black students' engagement within STEM environments. Black STEM students often lean on the support of their peers to help them overcome the barriers they experience within STEM environments (Morton et al., 2019). Given the protective factor community is for Black STEM students, collaborative learning can be a practice that would greatly benefit them because it naturally fosters a communal aspect in their learning experience. However, Black STEM students repeatedly note that their non-Black peers often avoid them in classroom interactions, making it difficult to sustain relationships and develop a sense of belonging (Dortch & Patel, 2017). Such experiences may be due to Eurocentric practices upheld in these spaces. Therefore, collaborative learning experiences may become harmful if not implemented in intentional ways to lessen the marginalization of Black students.

I framed this study through the collectivist cultural orientation indicator of the culturally engaging campus environments (CECE) model (Museus, 2014). The collectivist cultural [End Page 101] orientation indicator explains how students should experience environments that are more collectivist in nature, and this is particularly relevant for Black students as Black people as a whole tend to hold more collectivist worldviews (McGee & Bentley, 2017). Therefore, the collectivist cultural orientation indicator provides justification for why connections need to be made between Black STEM students' reliance on peer support and the benefits of collaborative learning in STEM environments, both of which lean in to collectivist worldview notions of community building and support.

CURRENT STUDY

Limited literature exists examining Black STEM students' collaborative learning experiences, either combining Black students with other underrepresented minority students or comparing Black students to other racial/ethnic groups. I aimed to continue establishing knowledge on Black STEM students' collaborative learning experiences by conducting this explorative study to uncover factors predicting Black STEM students' engagement in collaborative learning. The research questions were as follows:

1. 1. How do Black STEM students engage in collaborative learning compared to their non-STEM counterparts?

2. 2. How does collaborative learning relate to an institution's proportion of Black students, Black STEM students' sense of belonging, perceptions of supportive environments, and effective teaching practices?

METHOD

Positionality

Interrogating my positionality as I conducted this quantitative study is critical as I advance knowledge about Black STEM students' experiences (Martin et al., 2022). I am a Black woman higher education scholar who finds great value in community and who has engaged in isolating collaborative learning experiences throughout my education. Additionally, I do not believe a neutral approach exists when studying race, and my non-objective position influenced the study design, data analysis, and result interpretations. My positionality adds context for this study, and scholars who identify differently may contrive alternative implications from this work.

Data

This study used secondary data from the 2021...