Annotated Bibliography

Byars-Winston, A., Estrada, Y., Howard, C., Davis, D., & Zalapa, J. (2010). Influence of social cognitive and ethnic variables on academic goals of underrepresented students in science and engineering: a multiple-groups analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57(2), doi:10.1037/a0018608

• This article explores how both social cognitive and ethnic variables can play a part in determining the academic goals of people and groups that are "under-represented" within the academic sphere. The groups centered on this study include Africa-Americans, Latinos, Southeast Asians and Native Americans. There were 223 people in the study and the study itself was centered on what is known as the social cognitive theory, as proposed and discussed by Lent, Brown and Hackett in 1994. There was a significant relationship found between outcome expectations, interests and goals. Self-efficacy and efficacy-mediated relationships were also in play. One area that is touched upon with fervor in this study is what is known as STEM, which is short for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Indeed, the under-represented groups mentioned for this study are even more under-represented in the STEM group as it is dominated by white males in many to most instances. The college that was the subject of this report is known as ALANA. The school and its students were assessed based on attrition rates and other academic yardsticks.

Kachchaf, R., Ko, L., Hodari, A., & Ong, M. (2015). Career-Life Balance for Women of Color: Experiences in Science and Engineering Academia. Journal Of Diversity In Higher Education, 8(3), 175. doi:10.1037/a0039068

• Like the first article, this one also makes use of STEM and people in minority and/or underrepresented groups as its lens. Rather than race in general, the demographic that is most specifically used in this study is women who are of minority racial status such as African-American or Latino. The study touches upon a number of factors that are unique to women for one reason or another including exclusion from professional networks, and overall lack of support, questioning of competence, career/life balance, having children, elder care and other things. Indeed, it would seem that women of color being present in STEM fields raises many of the same question as are seen in other work fields, albeit in a more advanced and protracted fashion. This is obviously a problem as STEM fields and colleges will remain monolithically white and male so long as this is allowed to continue unfettered or at least unstopped.

Lee, H. S., Flores, L. Y., Navarro, R. L., & Kanagui-Munoz, M. (2015). A longitudinal test of social cognitive career theory's academic persistence model among Latino/a and White men and women engineering students. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 88, 95-103.

• As noted by the title, this study makes use of what is known as the Social Cognitive Career Theory, or SCCT for short. A group of 350 engineering students were part of the focus group. The group that was most represented was Latinos with 172. There were also 155 whites and 23 people of mixed race status. It was found that the academic persistence model was a great fit for the engineering environment and prism that was used for this report. There were significant differences found for the men and women. However, there were actually no differences present when it came to ethnicity. In other words, men and women were on different footing but people of differing races were not different for those racial reasons, at least based on appearances. Overall, it was found that there should be further study of academic persistence as it pertains to Latinos and/or women.

Miguel, A. & Kim, M. (2015). Successful Latina scientists and engineers: Their lived mentoring experiences and career development. Journal of Career Development, 42(2), 133-148.

• This study covers what is, unfortunately, a major outlier when it comes to the engineering field and that is when the engineer is both Latina and female. Indeed, Latinos are hard-pressed to make an impression in the engineering field and this is even more true when it comes to women. The linchpin, as revealed by this study, are avenues of growth and...
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This would include mentoring if various types so as to foster the different types and stages of career development, the support and encouragement of those same mentors, that the mentoring relationships are ones of mutual agreement and willing entry and so forth. The traits of these relationships and efforts includes passion, belief and goal orientation of the highest order. The findings above were through in-depth interviews that queried and studied the women that have "been there, done that" when it comes to the paradigm and outcomes mentioned above.
Moakler, M. & Kim, M. M. (2014). College major choice in STEM: Revisiting confidence and demographic factors. Career Development Quarterly, 62, 128-143.

• For any college student or someone that potentially aspires to be the same, picking the right major is important. This is true of all majors but it takes a certain kind of determination and effort to be a STEM major. Indeed, the majors within the STEM realm are the more complex and hard to fathom and learn. As such, it takes people that truly love the field and that want to succeed within the same. As noted throughout this annotated bibliography, the common stereotype when it comes to STEM students is white males. Concurrent to that is much the same thing with Asian males. However, it has been found in his study that those two groups are just as likely as Latinos and African-Americans to choose STEM majors. At the same time, it has been found that the perceived or actual mathematics and academic ability confidence level has a lot to do with the major that is chosen.

O'Neill, R. M., Shapiro, M., Ingols, C., & Blake-Beard, S. (2013). Understanding Women's Career Goals across Ethnic Identities. Advancing Women In Leadership, 33214-226.

• One of the dreaded topics and things when it comes to women in leadership is the glass ceiling. Indeed, it is the idea that there is a hard cap on just how high and far a woman can go before she is basically beat back and told that she will not get any further. Throwing in race makes the situation all the more daunting and intimidating. Even so, the authors of this study concede that the idea of women and their careers have "come into their own" in the 21st century. With that being said, one of the present ideas, albeit controversial, is that women do nto advance due to a lack of commitment and effort and/or an active choice of other things over career advancement such as children, caring for aging parents, etc. Indeed, this particular study specifically found that the arcs and pathways of women often do not fit into the "standard model" and this might be at least part of the genesis for what is going wrong for women that want to climb the corporate ladder.

Rivera, L., Chen, E., Flores, L., Blumberg, F., & Ponterotto, J. (2007). The effects of perceived barriers, role models, and acculturation on the career self-efficacy and career consideration of Hispanic women. Career Development Quarterly, 56(1), 47-61.

• Barriers come in many forms. Quite often, a barrier might not be explicit and obvious but it can still be perceived or considered to be present even if no firm and hard evidence proves this to be the case. With that paradigm explained and set, there was a path analysis done so as to look at things like barriers, acculturation and so forth. When looking at the male-dominated model, this accounted for about fifteen percent of the overall variance that was found. When it came to women, the amount of variance jumps to twenty-six percent. Further, the barriers found and described tended to be female-dominated and were of the Anglo acculturation. All of this was based on a random sample of Hispanic women that were of a career-minded nature. Something interesting is that the study found that there was no relationship found between the variables of interest when it came to male-dominated self-efficacy and consideration.

Vallejo, J. A. (2009). Latina Spaces: Middle-Class Ethnic Capital and Professional Associations in the Latino Community. City & Community, 8(2), 129-154.

• This study brings in another wrinkle and demographical variation and that is socioeconomic class. This is done…