Key Concepts Defined

Sense of belonging

Sense of belonging is a well-established measure that captures students' perceptions of social support, connectedness, feeling cared for, respected, and valued by members of their educational community (Espinosa, 2011; McGee, 2020; Strayhorn, 2012). In graduate school settings, sense of belonging is created through formal and informal interactions that graduate students have with their peers, faculty, and graduate program staff.

Othering

Othering occurs when members of a marginalized community (ie. women, students from racially minoritized groups, etc) are treated as essentially different from and generally inferior to members of dominant social groups in society. In STEM departments, where white men have been the predominant demographic group, othering can occur in many ways such as making doctoral students feel like they are underprepared or not worthy or ignoring students' research ideas or opinions.

Predominantly White Institution (PWI)

Universities whose enrollment of white students exceeds 50% or where white students are in the majority of those students enrolled. At PWI’s routine policies, practices, and ideologies often implicitly center whiteness/ culture and by design marginalize the identities, perspectives, and experiences of people of color (Lomotey, 2010; Cain-Sanschagrin, 2022)

Climate

A graduate program’s climate can be described as the way students experience the academic, interpersonal, and professional interactions they have with peers, faculty, and staff in their graduate program. A graduate program’s racial climate (Hurtado et al., 1999; Milem et al., 2005) is shaped by the program’s:

• compositional diversity – is the numerical and proportional representation of various racial and ethnic groups on a campus or in a graduate program

• historical legacy of inclusion or exclusion – describes how a campuses historical legacy of inclusion or exclusion affect the current campus climate (ie. statues, building names, etc.)

• psychological climate – student, faculty, and staff perceptions about inter-group relations, discrimination, racial conflict, and institutional responses to diversity

• behavioral climate – describes the nature of interactions between and among individuals (ie. students, faculty, and staff) from different racial/ethnic groups in the program or on-campus

• organizational structures/practices – such as curriculum, admission practices, budget allocations, and in other routine practices that guide the day-to-day activities of the program.

Microaggression

Microaggressions are the “everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership” (Sue et al, 2007, p. 278).

Selected Findings

• Students in the study reported feeling a constant sense of in-betweenness. While they were enrolled in a graduate program, they were not fully incorporated into the doctoral student community.

• Students described being micro aggressed by their non-bridge peers who questioned their academic merit. Bridge students also reported that their peers were resentful about the funding bridge students received from their program.

• Through relationships with bridge students from other departments in the institution, participants created the sense of community and support that was lacking from their program.

Implications

• Bridge programs are a great tool for increasing the representation of minoritized groups in STEM, but in order for Bridge programs to be part of creating a more inclusive culture they must be part of a broader set of efforts that include changes in mentoring, advising, and teaching practices (i.e. Women, Black, Latinx, Native American, etc).

• Leaders of Bridge programs might wish to proactively educate faculty and peers about equity and justice issues in STEM (ie. microaggressions, sense of belonging, etc) and provide examples of how their individual actions contribute to the climate of the program.

• STEM programs may wish to conduct routine climate assessments to 1) learn whether Bridge students experience the department climate as affirming and welcoming, and 2) learn what actions Bridge students imagine department leaders could take to improve the climate of the program.