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Success for All? A Call to Re-examine How Student Success Is Defined in Higher Education

A central focus in science education is to foster the success of students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). However, representation and achievement gaps relative to the majority still exist for minoritized students at all levels of science education and beyond. We sugge...

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Autores principales: Weatherton, Maryrose, Schussler, Elisabeth E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Society for Cell Biology 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8108506/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33635125
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.20-09-0223
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author Weatherton, Maryrose
Schussler, Elisabeth E.
author_facet Weatherton, Maryrose
Schussler, Elisabeth E.
author_sort Weatherton, Maryrose
collection PubMed
description A central focus in science education is to foster the success of students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). However, representation and achievement gaps relative to the majority still exist for minoritized students at all levels of science education and beyond. We suggest that majority groups defining the definitions and measures of success may exert “soft power” over minoritized student success. Using a hegemonic and critical race theory lens, we examined five years of research articles in CBE—Life Sciences Education to explore how success was defined and measured and what frameworks guided the definitions of student success. The majority of articles did not explicitly define success, inherently suggesting “everyone knows” its definition. The articles that did define success often used quantitative, academic outcomes like grade point average and exam scores, despite commonly cited frameworks with other metrics. When students defined success, they focused on different aspects, such as gaining leadership skills and building career networks, suggesting a need to integrate student voice into current success definitions. Using these results, we provide suggestions for research, policy, and practice regarding student success. We urge self-reflection and institutional change in our definitions of success, via consideration of a diversity of student voices.
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spelling pubmed-81085062021-05-11 Success for All? A Call to Re-examine How Student Success Is Defined in Higher Education Weatherton, Maryrose Schussler, Elisabeth E. CBE Life Sci Educ General Essays and Articles A central focus in science education is to foster the success of students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). However, representation and achievement gaps relative to the majority still exist for minoritized students at all levels of science education and beyond. We suggest that majority groups defining the definitions and measures of success may exert “soft power” over minoritized student success. Using a hegemonic and critical race theory lens, we examined five years of research articles in CBE—Life Sciences Education to explore how success was defined and measured and what frameworks guided the definitions of student success. The majority of articles did not explicitly define success, inherently suggesting “everyone knows” its definition. The articles that did define success often used quantitative, academic outcomes like grade point average and exam scores, despite commonly cited frameworks with other metrics. When students defined success, they focused on different aspects, such as gaining leadership skills and building career networks, suggesting a need to integrate student voice into current success definitions. Using these results, we provide suggestions for research, policy, and practice regarding student success. We urge self-reflection and institutional change in our definitions of success, via consideration of a diversity of student voices. American Society for Cell Biology 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC8108506/ /pubmed/33635125 http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.20-09-0223 Text en © 2021 M. Weatherton and E. E. Schussler. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2021 The American Society for Cell Biology. “ASCB®” and “The American Society for Cell Biology®” are registered trademarks of The American Society for Cell Biology. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License.
spellingShingle General Essays and Articles
Weatherton, Maryrose
Schussler, Elisabeth E.
Success for All? A Call to Re-examine How Student Success Is Defined in Higher Education
title Success for All? A Call to Re-examine How Student Success Is Defined in Higher Education
title_full Success for All? A Call to Re-examine How Student Success Is Defined in Higher Education
title_fullStr Success for All? A Call to Re-examine How Student Success Is Defined in Higher Education
title_full_unstemmed Success for All? A Call to Re-examine How Student Success Is Defined in Higher Education
title_short Success for All? A Call to Re-examine How Student Success Is Defined in Higher Education
title_sort success for all? a call to re-examine how student success is defined in higher education
topic General Essays and Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8108506/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33635125
http://dx.doi.org/10.1187/cbe.20-09-0223
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