STEM拔尖女生的科研生涯选择:“关心困境”及其影响

Career Choice for Top-notch Female STEM Students:Caring Dilemma and Its Effects

STEM领域的拔尖女生是青年女性科技人才的重要后备军,因人数较少往往成为统计意义上易被忽略的微群体,其生涯选择困境难以被真正看到。本文运用质性研究方法,对某顶尖大学拔尖计划2020—2022年本科在读、中途选择分流以及临近毕业的女生进行了多轮次、多角度深度访谈,并结合对拔尖男生群体的访谈进行多重情境与主题对比分析。研究发现:我国STEM拔尖女生的科研生涯选择主要受能力觉悟、情感倾向和关系支持三个维度的影响,关系支持是她们面临科研生涯选择时的关键影响因素;来自多重“关心圈层”的关心由于忽视了女性路径的存在与价值,而导致拔尖女生群体职业选择时陷入“关心困境”。本文为关注和理解STEM拔尖女生的成长与发展提供两项教育切入策略,即关心过程的具体化和教育过程的平等化。

Top-notch female students in STEM fields are an important reserve force for young female scientists.Due to their small number,they tend to become a statistically overlooked micro group,and their career choices and dilemmas are difficult to be truly seen.This study adopts qualitative research methods to conduct multi-round and multi-angle in-depth interviews on female undergraduate students in the“Talents Program”of a top university who were studying,chose their major,and were about to graduate in years 2020-2022.Additionally,it conducts multiple contextual and thematic comparative analyses by incorporating interviews with top-notch male students.The study found that:firstly,the choices of a career in scientific research among top-notch female students in STEM fields are mainly influenced by three dimensions:the awareness of their ability,the tendency of emotion,and the support of relationship.Among them,the support of relationship is a critical influencing factor.Secondly,due to the neglect of the existence and value of the“feminine approach”in caring,top-notch female students are trapped in a“caring dilemma”when making career choices.This paper provides two educational approaches for paying attention to and understanding the growth and development of top-notch female students in STEM fields—the concretization of caring process and the equalization of educational process.