A Scoping Review on Out-of-School STEM Programs for Middle School Girls in the United States

Digari, Sheetal

A Scoping Review on Out-of-School STEM Programs for Middle School Girls in the United States

dc.contributor.advisor	Walters, Lynne Masel
dc.contributor.advisor	Slattery, Patrick
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Burlbaw, Lynn
dc.creator	Digari, Sheetal
dc.date.accessioned	2019-01-23T20:01:48Z
dc.date.available	2020-12-01T07:32:31Z
dc.date.created	2018-12
dc.date.issued	2018-10-25
dc.date.submitted	December 2018
dc.date.updated	2019-01-23T20:01:49Z
dc.description.abstract	Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education is growing as an imperative 21^st century academic emphasis for the development and welfare of the United States. Literature in the discipline of STEM education offer evidence showing the underrepresentation of women in STEM education and STEM careers. This underrepresentation is traced back to young girls losing interest in STEM during middle school and eventually not choosing STEM related professional opportunities as women. However, all these meaningful discourses often overshadow one critical question which is, what measures are in place to promote interest in STEM education among young girls? In this regard, Out of School Time (OST) programs may be an effective strategy in stimulating interest in STEM education. Therefore, the purpose of this scoping review is to report and analyze a range of OST STEM programs available for middle school girls. Used in this review, scoping review as a mapping methodological framework grants the flexibility of covering a broad research area such as OST STEM programs, which has not been comprehensively studied. Additionally, this framework allows inclusion of programs reported in studies with different methodological design, as well as the ongoing research. Moreover, I have used matrix method outlined by Garrard to manage and synthesize programs reported in published studies between 2002-2018 that matched the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Forty-six programs met the inclusion criteria for this review. These reported studies are from four primary databases of education and engineering; ERIC (EBSCOhost), Education Source, Academic Ultimate, and Compendex Village. Five major themes regarding OST STEM programs emerged from the findings: 1) engineering as the main focus in the OST STEM program 2) neglecting self-identity of middle school females 3) the need for more female role models 4) insufficient OST STEM programs to meet identified needs, and 5) lack of accessibility to OST STEM programs by young women of color. This review highlights the state of current out-of-school STEM programs for middle school girls providing an opportunity for practitioners and policy makers to improve any specific characteristics of the OST STEM program.	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/174454
dc.language.iso	en
dc.subject	STEM	en
dc.subject	middle school	en
dc.subject	female students	en
dc.subject	OST programs	en
dc.title	A Scoping Review on Out-of-School STEM Programs for Middle School Girls in the United States	en
dc.type	Thesis	en
dc.type.material	text	en
local.embargo.terms	2020-12-01
local.etdauthor.orcid	0000-0003-3932-9148
thesis.degree.department	Teaching, Learning, and Culture	en
thesis.degree.discipline	Curriculum and Instruction	en
thesis.degree.grantor	Texas A & M University	en
thesis.degree.level	Masters	en
thesis.degree.name	Master of Science	en