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Equity in education has been conceptualized in various ways, which provides different affordances and constraints for policy, research, and teaching decisions. Regarding the latter, there is a dearth of research on how postsecondary science faculty conceptualize equity and whether and how their understandings of equity may be informing their teaching and related practices. This study examined equity conceptions and reported teaching practices among 45 faculty members in a College of Sciences at a research intensive, historically White, public university in the United States. Thematic analysis showed that faculty conceptualized equity in three ways—"equality," "inclusion," or "justice"—and these conceptions were associated with instructor‐centered or student‐centered practices. Professors with "equality" conceptions of equity tended to report teaching mostly via lecture, while those with "inclusion" conceptions reported using active learning and/or inclusive teaching practices. Most professors with a "justice" conception went beyond active learning and inclusive practices to also include an emerging critical pedagogy. Conceptions of equity appear to inform how university science faculty see their roles in advancing equity in their classrooms. These findings provide a foundation for future research that seeks to support college science faculty's understandings of equity issues in higher education and the pedagogical practices necessary to ameliorate them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilizes interviews with 33 racially diverse high school girls who have expressed interest in engineering careers. Using the framework of critical consciousness and informed by intersectional theories, the authors examine their views about gender inequality in engineering. Results revealed that while most articulated systemic understandings of inequality, Black participants were particularly likely to exhibit this critical reflection. Yet many young women revealed a more emerging form of critical reflection, particularly Asian participants. Few respondents expressed critical self-efficacy, or confidence to challenge gender inequality in their future careers; such views were almost exclusively held by Black and Latinx respondents. In contrast, White respondents commonly invoked a "lean-in" self-efficacy to be successful navigating, but not challenging, the White male-dominated engineering workforce. Overall, we find clear evidence that young women's racialized identities have implications not only for their understandings of gender inequality, but also for their motivation to disrupt it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young women remain underrepresented among engineering bachelor's degree holders. While there is a relatively large body of extant research on the many factors that curtail young women's interest in pursuing engineering, less is known about high school girls who are on an engineering pathway. Therefore, this study focuses on a select group of precollege young women who express a strong interest in engineering. Specifically, informed by theories of gender as a social system and previous empirical research, this mixed‐methods study explores the constellation of significant actors within the daily lives of these young women, to understand from whom and how they are supported in pursuing this gender‐atypical field, and simultaneously, from whom and how they are discouraged. To do so, the researchers analyzed survey and interview data from a sample of diverse high school girls who participate in the Society of Women Engineers' (SWE) SWENext programme. Quantitative results indicate that young women report high levels of encouragement from most sources, including parents, teachers, and other young women. However, across various peer contexts, they receive much more support from other young women than from young men. Qualitative results further reveal that parents and teachers stand out in young women's recollections of encouragement, often through advocating their participation in engineering activities or providing mentoring support. In contrast, young men in engineering spaces were recalled as particularly discouraging of their engineering participation, by socially or physically excluding them or refusing to provide recognition. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilizes interviews from 22 young female engineers from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds as they first entered the White and male-dominated engineering labor force with the goal of examining: (1) how these women endorsed a gender-blind frame that characterizes their workplaces as fundamentally meritocratic, and alternatively, (2) how they named gender as relevant or salient to experiences and interactions at work. Drawing on the insights of intersectional scholars to answer the previous questions, the study calls attention to how the invocation of these frames differed for women of color compared to their majority White female peers. Results revealed that most respondents strongly endorsed the idea that engineering workplaces are meritocratic and that their gender is not relevant. However, there is also evidence of racial divergence in the themes expressed. For example, some White women expressed a narrative contradictory to meritocracy, discussing their workplaces as like family, while in contrast, women of color often expressed uncomfortable experiences of standing out. Overall, the results suggest that female engineers' tendency to disavow, either explicitly or implicitly, that discrimination and bias occurs in their workplaces, likely contributes to continued gender and racial inequality; subsequently, programs and interventions to facilitate awareness of inequality are critically needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is well known that women have relatively high rates of attrition from STEM occupations in the United States, there is limited empirical research on the views and experiences of female STEM degree-earners that may underlie their commitment to their chosen fields. Utilizing survey data from 229 women completing STEM degrees at two U.S. universities, the present study examines how perceptions of occupational affordances and interactions with others in the field predict their occupational STEM commitment. Additionally, the study employs an intersectional lens to consider whether the patterns of association are different for Asian women and White women. Multivariate regression analyses reveal that although communal goal affordances do not significantly predict women's occupational STEM commitment, agentic goal affordances are a strong predictor of such commitment. Regarding experiences with others in the field, results reveal that classmate interactions are not associated with STEM commitment, whereas positive faculty interactions do significantly predict such commitment. However, further analyses reveal racial differences in these patterns because agentic goal affordances are much weaker predictors of occupational STEM commitment for Asian women than for White women, and results indicate that faculty interactions are significant predictors of STEM commitment only for White women. Thus, our results strongly suggest that the theoretical models of motivation and support that underlie much of the discussion around women in STEM do not similarly apply to women from all racial backgrounds and that more research is needed that considers how both gender and race simultaneously shape STEM engagement and persistence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hawaiian picture-winged flies in the genus Drosophila are a spectacular example of rapid evolutionary diversification in which sexual selection is considered an important mechanism for reproductive isolation and speciation. We investigated the behavioral reproductive isolation of two closely related and sympatric Hawaiian picture-winged Drosophila species, D. silvestris and D. heteroneura, which are known to hybridize in nature and produce viable and fertile hybrids. We compared the mating success of parental, F1 and backcross males in pairings with D. heteroneura females. The F1 males were produced by mating D. heteroneura males with D. silvestris females, and the backcross males were produced by mating F1 females with D. heteroneura males. The mating success of backcross males paired with D. heteroneura females were significantly reduced relative to that of parental and F1 males. This reduced mating success occurred primarily at a late stage of courtship where female choice of mate may be important. Two- and three-gene models demonstrate that epistasis involving a few genes could account for the observed variation in male mating success. These results are consistent with negative epistasis in the backcross generation and support the importance of sexual selection and negative epistasis in the evolution and maintenance of these species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in human embryonic stem cell (ESC) and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) biology enable generation of dopaminergic neurons for potential therapy and drug screening. However, our current understanding of molecular and cellular signaling that controls human dopaminergic development and function is limited. Here, we report on a whole genome analysis of gene expression during dopaminergic differentiation of human ESC/iPSC using Illumina bead microarrays. We generated a transcriptome data set containing the expression levels of 28,688 unique transcripts by profiling five lines (three ESC and two iPSC lines) at four stages of differentiation: (1) undifferentiated ESC/iPSC, (2) neural stem cells, (3) dopaminergic precursors, and (4) dopaminergic neurons. This data set provides comprehensive information about genes expressed at each stage of differentiation. Our data indicate that distinct pathways are activated during neural and dopaminergic neuronal differentiation. For example, WNT, sonic hedgehog (SHH), and cAMP signaling pathways were found over-represented in dopaminergic populations by gene enrichment and pathway analysis, and their role was confirmed by perturbation analyses using RNAi (small interfering RNA of SHH and WNT) or small molecule [dibutyryl cyclic AMP (dcAMP)]. In summary, whole genome profiling of dopaminergic differentiation enables systematic analysis of genes/pathways, networks, and cellular/molecular processes that control cell fate decisions. Such analyses will serve as the foundation for better understanding of dopaminergic development, function, and development of future stem cell-based therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]