Impact of Exposure to a Counter-Stereotypical STEM Television Program on Children’s Gender-and Race-Based STEM Occupational Schema

Fashina Aladé; Alexis R. Lauricella; Yannik Kumar; Ellen Wartella

doi:10.3390/su14095631

Impact of Exposure to a Counter-Stereotypical STEM Television Program on Children’s Gender-and Race-Based STEM Occupational Schema

Fashina Aladé^*, Alexis R. Lauricella, Yannik Kumar, Ellen Wartella

^*Corresponding author for this work

Communication Studies

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Gender and racial diversity in STEM has been deemed an essential need for a sustainable future, but girls and children from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds continue to show less interest in STEM than their White and male counterparts. Media has been shown to reflect children’s occupational schema from an early age, and therefore might be used to help broaden children’s beliefs about who participates in STEM. In this field-based pre/post-experimental study, children in kindergarten and first grades (N = 48, 62.5% female, M_age = 6.57) viewed episodes of a STEM-focused educational television series that features a diverse group of protagonists two to three times a week for eight weeks. Their occupational schema were measured before and after exposure. Results suggest there was no quantifiable change in their attitudes. However, qualitative analysis of their open-ended responses sheds light on how children’s beliefs about who participates in STEM are shaped, i.e., by both mediated and real-world exposure.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	5631
Journal	Sustainability
Volume	14
Issue number	9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095631
State	Published - May 1 2022

Keywords

STEM identity
children’s television
gender
occupational attitudes
race

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Computer Science (miscellaneous)
Geography, Planning and Development
Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Building and Construction
Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
Energy Engineering and Power Technology
Hardware and Architecture
Computer Networks and Communications
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.3390/su14095631

Cite this

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abstract = "Gender and racial diversity in STEM has been deemed an essential need for a sustainable future, but girls and children from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds continue to show less interest in STEM than their White and male counterparts. Media has been shown to reflect children{\textquoteright}s occupational schema from an early age, and therefore might be used to help broaden children{\textquoteright}s beliefs about who participates in STEM. In this field-based pre/post-experimental study, children in kindergarten and first grades (N = 48, 62.5% female, Mage = 6.57) viewed episodes of a STEM-focused educational television series that features a diverse group of protagonists two to three times a week for eight weeks. Their occupational schema were measured before and after exposure. Results suggest there was no quantifiable change in their attitudes. However, qualitative analysis of their open-ended responses sheds light on how children{\textquoteright}s beliefs about who participates in STEM are shaped, i.e., by both mediated and real-world exposure.",

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Impact of Exposure to a Counter-Stereotypical STEM Television Program on Children’s Gender-and Race-Based STEM Occupational Schema

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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