1 stepping up to a nontraditional challenge

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www.ctetrailblazers.org

Stepping up to a

nontraditional challenge

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UnderstandingNontraditional Occupations

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WHAT ARE NTO’S?

A nontraditional occupation is one in which25% or less of a certain gender is represented.

NTO’s for Women NTO’s for Men

Court Reporters

Dental Hygienists

Insurance Appraisers

Elementary/Middle School

Teachers

Nuclear Medicine Technicians

Physical Therapists

Veterinary Techs

Waiters

Aerospace Engineers

Air Traffic Controllers

Cartographers

Dentists

Foresters

Funeral Directors

Optometrists

Urban and Regional Planners

WHAT ARE STEREOTYPES?

Defusing the power of negative stereotypes

What are stereotypes?

Breaking the Barrier of Stereotyping

Cultural and Social Stereotypes:How we simplify the world

•A stereotype is a “conventional, formulaic, or oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.”

•We all use stereotypes to help us understand the world and make it simpler.

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Identity Salience: conceived self as belonging to any one of

numerous social categories (female, Irish American, child,

etc.)is developed by age 6.

The awareness of cultural stereotypes increases

dramatically between the ages of 6 and 11.

Stereotypical Career Expectations are developed

during this phase.

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Social and Cultural Stereotypes Take Hold


Start Overcoming Stereotypes Early

• Stereotypes can affect career choices early in schooling

• Anxiety about stereotypes have been shown to undermine sense of belonging for girls in math as early as middle school

• Girls’ confidence in and liking of mathematics begins to wane in middle school

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By understanding the beliefs that give rise

to negative stereotypes, we can begin to

reduce the differences that persist in

academic performance across ethnic and

gender groups.

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Understanding and Remediating Stereotype Threat

Research on understanding and remediating ethnic and gender gaps in education

Unintended Signals of Discouragement

Implicit Bias

Stereotype Threat

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Recognizing Our OwnUnintended Signals of Discouragement

How to Avoid Them

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We maythink we know

what we believe and value,but

Self-Perception can be deceptive.

Our true beliefs and valuesare secreted away to a subconscious level.

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Understanding Self-Perception


What do you believe?

•How have your experiences influenced

who you believe you should be?

•Understanding what we truly believe is

an important first step toward

overcoming barriers that block us from

achieving a goal.

•Do your beliefs align with your actions?

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Are you aware of the messages you are sending to others?


“Unintended Signal of Discouragement”

President of Harvard University Lawrence “Larry” Summers,

Resigned 2/21/2006One year after his 01/14/2005

remarks

Speaking at the NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce, Dr. Summers questioned the “intrinsic aptitude” of women and suggested that they might be under represented in STEM fields because of:

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1. Their relatively lower interest in high powered jobs that required massive professional commitment; and

2. Their innate difference in abilities.


Subconscious Beliefs Surface

•Throughout his career, Larry Summers has

been an advocate for educating girls’ for

careers in the economic and financial world.

•However, he consistently makes statements

that suggest he believes otherwise: girls are

"socialized toward nursing" while boys are

"socialized toward building bridges.”

•His mistake was not understanding that he

subconsciously held these stereotypes to be

true.

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Becoming Aware of Our Implicit Biases

Recognizing Our Subconscious Beliefs

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Implicit Bias

Implicit Biases

Thoughts that people may be unwilling to expressand

may not even know they have

“Individuals may have unconscious biases involving gender or race or religion that are quite different from their stated

beliefs.”Fred Smyth, UVA

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Powerful Effect on Gender Equityin Science and Mathematics

Engagement and Performance

Implicit Bias

Implicit Association Test(IAT)

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/

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Implicit Bias

Understanding theStereotype Threat

Phenomena

How are individuals affected

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Stereotype Threat

is the fear that one's behavior will confirm an

existing stereotype of a group with which one

identifies 20

Dr. Joshua Aronson,Professor of Applied

Psychology

Dr. Claude Steele,Professor of Psychology

1995 New York University, SteinhardtSchool of Culture, Education & Human

DevelopmentResearch on gender “gaps” in

educational achievement and standardized test performance


Individuals being targeted by well-knowncultural stereotypes can feel very threatened.

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Stereotype Threat

triggers a number of

psychological and physiological responses,

many of which interfere with

intellectual performance and academic motivation.


Experimentsmake

you think

A test was presented under two conditions:1. The control condition: the test was presented as these tests are always presented - as a measure of intellectual ability and preparation.2. The experimental condition: the test was presented in a non-evaluative way. The test takers were told that the researchers were not interested in measuring their ability with the test but that they just wanted to use the test to examine the psychology of verbal problem solving.

Results:1. In the control condition, the African American test takers, on average, scored much lower than the white test takers2. For the white test takers there was no difference in their scores between the control condition and the experimental condition.3. For the African American test takers there was a big difference between the control condition and the experimental condition. They solved about twice as many problems on the test in the experimental condition. Moreover, there was no difference between the performance of the black test takers and the white test takers.

Steele and Aronson (1995)22


Research shows that confronting negative stereotypes can lead to:

1. Anxiety

2. Dejection

3. Reduced self-control

4. Reduced working memory

5. Reduced creativity, flexibility, and speed

These changes are physiological and can be measured.

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How do individuals affected by stereotype threat behave?

•Avoiding tasks

•Devaluing the task to protect self from consequences of failure

•Distancing themselves from group in order not to be associated with stereotype

•Changing career aspirations

•Negative stereotyping tendsto increase behaviors associated with the stereotype

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Changing the Message

Taking Action

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1. Understand our Implicit Bias

2. Reframe the task and modify course materials by removing situational cues

3. Provide experiences and role models to help students see alternatives to the stereotype

4. Attribute struggles to external, temporary causes. Foster a belief that intelligence is malleable

How can you reduce stereotype threat?

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Step 1. Understand Our Implicit Biases

“Our preferences for racial, ethnic, and other groups may be unconscious”.

• Implicit bias can influence behaviors,

often with “unintended signals of discouragement.”

• The first step in changing our attitude is awareness.

• Consciously planned actions can compensate for

known, unconscious preferences and beliefs.

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Step 2. Reframe tasks and modify course materials by removing situational cues

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• Hang a picture of Danica McKellar along side a picture of Einstein

• Display Counter Stereotype Posters

• Replace stereotype reinforcing literature with neutral literature

• Provide Role Model Mentors

• Talk about the inaccuracy of the stereotype

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Frederick P. Rose Director,Hayden

Planetarium,American Museum of Natural History

Step 3. Provide experiences and role models to help students see alternatives to the

stereotype

Role Models and Mentors:

Alleviate performance worries

Influence our attitudes and words

1. Establishing a view or vision that contradicts the

common view

2. Supporting positive social change

3. Encouraging acceptance of alternative attributes

4. Empowering individuals to succeed

5. Respecting individualsCreate a Counter Stereotype

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Step 4. Attribute struggles to external, temporary causes. Foster the belief that IQ is malleable.

Students who were encouraged to view intelligence as

malleable, "like a muscle" that can grow with work and

effort, were more likely to indicate greater enjoyment and

valuing of education, and they received higher grades.

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Reducing the Impact of Stereotype Threat

Remember these hints

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1. Be positive.

Reminding students

of achieved

positive identities . . .

may be sufficient to

subdue stereotype

threat.

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2. Be Stigma Conscious.

Positive stereotypes

produce benefits for

stereotype-associated

group members when

they are subtly, not

blatantly, highlighted.

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3. Be aware.

Performance is

better or equivalent

when stereotype

threat is not

emphasized.

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4. Be alert.

Any group can

show evidence of

underperformance

when the situation

brings attention

to the negative

stereotype.

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5. Be sensitive.

Students who value

and care about doing

well in the stereotyped

domain are hurt most

by negative

stereotyping.

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6. Be a coach.

Intelligence is like a

muscle, malleable

and not fixed; it can

be improved with

practice.

Students need to

know this and focus

on “effort” not

“talent.”

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Breaking Barriers

• Develop support programs for nontraditional students

• Place pairs of nontraditional students together in one course or job site

• Encourage students to stay in the class or job for a few weeks

• Provide formal opportunities to meet and share problems or concerns

• Provide students with positive reinforcement

• Establish and maintain a mentoring program

http://reducingstereotypethreat.org/

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ReferencesKrendl, Richeson, Kelley, & Heatherton, 2008

www.reducingstereotypethreat.org/mechanisms.html

Quinn & Spencer, 2001www.reducingstereotypethreat.org/bibliography_quinn_spencer.html

Spencer, Steele, and Quinn, 1999 www.reducingstereotypethreat.org/bibliography_spencer_steele_quinn.html

Steele & Aronson, 1995www.reducingstereotypethreat.org/bibliography_steele_aronson.html

Reducing Stereotype Threatwww.reducingstereotypethreat.org/reduce.html

Math Scores Show No Gap for Girlshttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/25/education/25math.html

Ben-Zeev, Fein, and Inzlict (2005). Arousal and stereotype threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Volume 41, Issue 2, March 2005, Pages 174-181.

Johns, Schmader, and Martens (2005). Knowing is half the battle. Psychological Science

Volume 16 Issue 3 Page 175-179, March 2005.

McIntyre (2005). A social impact trend in the effects of role models on alleviating women’s mathematics stereotype threat. CRISP, February 2005,v 10 n 9.

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1 stepping up to a nontraditional challenge

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