Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation - NSU Access Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice

Advisor

Vanaja Nethi

Committee Member

Dian Moorhouse

Committee Member

Kimberly Durham

Keywords

African American students, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, black cultural & family values

Abstract

The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) field is important in the United States and on a global scale as it provides support to the infrastructure of society. Yet, the current STEM workforce in the United States is declining, resulting in the U.S. lagging behind other countries. This creates a demand for more STEM workers, especially underrepresented minority workers such as African Americans. The purpose of this study is to explore the institutional, cultural, and familial factors that affect the retention of African American students majoring in STEM programs at technical colleges in Georgia. Studies have shown that these factors have influenced African American students at larger institutions that have STEM programs. Yet, there are a lack of studies to measure the effects of these factors at technical colleges. The study investigated how the mean levels of institutional, cultural, and familial factors differed between students currently in the STEM program (retained group) and those who have not persisted and have left the program. Guided by the theoretical framework of social constructionism, this quantitative study utilized a correlational predictive research design. A 30-question online survey was sent to 365 participants in the retained group and 279 participants in the leaver group. The response rate was very low, 7% response (27 participants) from the retained group and 3% (7 participants) from the leaver group. Descriptive statistics and Independent Samples t-test were used to analyze the data. For Institutional factors, it was found that the means did not differ between the retained and leaver groups of African American STEM students enrolled at a technical college in Georgia. Resilience was the institutional factor element that scored the highest mean level for both groups, indicating that this element had the most influence on retention. There was little difference in the mean levels of cultural factors between both groups of retained and leaver students. Positive self-identity was identified as the element having the highest mean and most influence on retention on both groups. For Familial factors, it was found that Early interest in STEM had the most influence on retention for both groups. Although the means levels for the elements differ significantly, both groups valued the importance of nurturing a child’s interest and potential in STEM. It is recommended that future research should be expanded to the other technical colleges in Georgia.

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