STEM person of the week: a classroom intervention to support students’ perceptions of, and skills shared with, STEM professionals

Underrepresentation of certain groups (e.g., women, lower social economic backgrounds) both in STEM education and careers is troublesome and related with STEM identity and perceptions of who belongs in STEM. Such perceptions, which are upheld by young people, can be mitigated by exploring similarities between role aspirants (students) and role models (STEM professionals). In this study, we present STEM Person of the Week, a STEM attributes-focused intervention aimed at challenging stereotypes of people who work in STEM. Participants were students aged 11–13 in England. Through written surveys collected across a one-year period, students gave and identified with words used to describe STEM professionals. STEM professionals were often described using three categories: STEM attributes, stereotypes of intelligence and positive sentiments. When comparing between-groups, immediately after the intervention, a lower proportion of students used words of intelligence and positive sentiments to describe STEM professionals in favor of a higher proportion of students using STEM attributes. This was also echoed by the number of words given per student in each of these categories. Hardworking, creative, curious and organized were both the four most frequently given, and identified with, STEM attributes used to describe STEM professionals. Attributes-focused interventions, such as this, can reduce stereotypical views of students in secondary education in the short term. However, it is the repeated use of similar resources by educators that could potentially lead to longer term changes through reinforcement of counter-stereotypical narratives about who belongs in STEM, and the attributes needed to do so.