DOI: 10.17604/grtq-kp12
title: Marginalized Youth Perspectives of School-based STEM Education Experiences

description: This dataset includes quotes from the transcribed interviews conducted with historically marginalized youth, ages 14-22. We define historically marginalized youth as those who “are excluded from privilege, resources, and/or opportunity based on an aspect of their identity” (Jones & Burrell, 2022, p. 1037), such as race/ethnicity, discourse patterns [home or community languages], or gender). The purpose of this work was to understand historically marginalized students' perspectives for improvements to school-based STEM education to realize equity, access, and belonging in STEM. Findings from the data analyses point to STEM teachers as key to shaping participant perceptions, using applied “real life” lessons and “hands on” instruction important for understanding and engaging with STEM concepts. Participants' perceptions of success and barriers for learning STEM were based on extrinsic and intrinsic factors. While students spoke of STEM areas that they found interesting both in and out of school, as well as awareness of how STEM courses lead to college and/or career opportunities, many were unsure of or uninterested in the STEM courses offered at their high school beyond the requirements for graduation.
description: There are two sheets for this dataset: 
1. datafile_Marginalized Youth Perspectives of School-based STEM Education Experiences.csv includes the qualitatively coded dataset. The datafile rows are organized by the following column headers: column 1) study participant's id number; column 2)one of the three themes from the analyzed dataset; column 3) an interview group session number; column 4) code number(s) assigned to the participant's quote; and column 5) participant quote. The exception to this organization is the focus groups' codes for participating high school students' "STEM courses taken and offered at school" (code 13); these are summarized by the focus group session for ease of reading and understanding the range of courses taken across groups. Thus, there is no participant ID numbers in column A for focus groups with code 13. 
2. code_key-Marginalized Youth Perspectives of School-based STEM Education Experiences.csv includes a key to identify the code numbers (with definitions) assigned to participants' quotes within the datafile.
description: Grounded theory methods were used to analyze transcribed interviews over time (2019-2022) due to the Covid-19 shutdown. As utilized by grounded theory methodologists, we applied an iterative approach to our qualitative study design, moving back and forth between collecting and analyzing the data (Charmaz, 2014; Thornberg et al., 2013). This dataset includes the coded quotes from the interviews, organized by the three primary themes: I. Teachers and Teaching; II. Improving Opportunities to Learn for School-based STEM Education; and Theme III: Realizing Equity in School-based STEM Education.  

After transcribing the audio-recorded interviews, we completed data analyses of the transcripts over five phases. 
- Phase 1: For the first set of interviews, we carried out line-by-line coding grounded in the data (Saldaña, 2017). This resulted in codes that were discussed/agreed upon across the research team;
- Phase 2: After all interviews were completed, the research team met via Zoom to synchronously code 3-4 transcripts before completing the remaining transcripts independently. Constant comparison of those codes, memo writing, and memo sorting led to our first set of themes: STEM is viewed as important for a) providing future opportunities and b) understanding daily life, c) the instructional approaches used to teach STEM are important, and d) teachers matter). 
- Phase 3: Additional interviews conducted over the next year were transcribed and open coded by the research team following the same procedures in phases one and two. We then merged the initial and additional interview data codes, with team members checking each other’s codes and reaching consensus agreement for all codes across coded transcripts. Using constant comparison methods (Charmaz, 2014), we proceeded to construct focused codes and families from the merged dataset, resulting in seven themes: a) Teachers and teaching, b) What constitutes STEM and STEM experiences, c) Relevance to real life –in and out of school disconnects, d) STEM courses lead to greater opportunities/college preparation, e) Equity and equal opportunity for all – Student agency for course selection, f) Extrinsic motivation, and g) Intrinsic motivation. 
- Phase 4: Two of the research team then reviewed the coded transcripts a third time, comparing data with codes and across codes (phase four), leading to fewer but more focused and comprehensive codes (Thornberg et al., 2013) with five overarching themes: I) Teachers/teaching, II) STEM learning experiences, III) Relevance to real life – In and out of school disconnects, IV) STEM courses lead to greater opportunities, and V) Equity and equal opportunities for all – Student agency.
- Phase 5: For this final phase of analysis, three of the research team reviewed the overall coded transcripts again, discussing and merging codes to finalize and come to agreement on categories and codes for three themes: I) Teachers/Teaching, II) Improving Opportunities to Learn for School-based STEM Education, III) Realizing Equity in School-based STEM Education. 

The research team discussed and resolved all differences before moving from one phase of analysis to the next, resulting in an inter-rater reliability rate of 100%.