Engineering/Science/Gender Equity
This category deals with gender equity in engineering and science education and in the workforce - issues of access, climate, and culture. This category also deals with feminist science theory and analyses being developed by those doing gender equity work in engineering & science. I discuss what might be missing from an adequate feminist theory of science and engineering, and what feminist insights might be missing from the "gender equity" analyses.


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Thursday, January 26, 2006
 

What's not to like about a proposed federal aid program that encourages students to pursue math, science, and strategic foreign languages in college?

Why We Need the SMART Program. Sen. Bill Frist writes that colleges have nothing to fear -- and much to gain -- from the new federal scholarships to promote study of math and science. [Inside Higher Ed]

Senator Frist writes:

I know that some college officials have expressed doubts about the way the [SMART] program shifts away from the traditional practice of awarding federal aid to undergraduates based primarily on economic need rather than merit...I’m shocked that some of SMART Grants’ critics appear to believe that low-income students can’t earn good grades.

That seems right - who could disagree? Well.... 

When I was ready to enter college, I was a "low-income" student.  I went to high school in a rural school district; my school was near the bottom in the entire state in terms of quality education.  I was smarter than your average bear, as we used to say, but all my native smarts couldn't entirely compensate for the lack of educational opportunities in my high school.  I took placement exams the summer before I entered college that showed I knew next to nothing about chemistry, despite having taken it in high school.  Why?  Because we never had class.  We just sat around and talked.  My teacher wasn't qualified to teach chemistry.  So he didn't.  Besides, he may have been tired from driving the school bus in the morning.  I didn't know any calculus, either, because it wasn't offered in my school.  But I wanted to be an engineer. 

Students like me may not qualify for "merit" grants because we are amateurs competing with professionals - the students whose schools offer calculus, and whose teachers actually teach chemistry - maybe even AP chemistry.  Yet we amateurs are no less capable of becoming scientists and engineers, after a little remedial work such as I needed.  If your family is wealthy enough that you don't qualify for Pell grants, then you are also probably attending school in a wealthier school district, with all its attendant advantages.  

We should not be trying to select the "students of merit" and only investing our money in them.  We need federal aid for low-income students administered similarly to the G.I.Bill post-World War II.  If it "fostered the growth of the American middle class" back then, then something like it could do the same for low-income students today.  The G. I. Bill did not ask if you "merited" your benefit.  It just offered it - up to you whether or not to take advantage.  One of my uncles was able to become an engineer through this program.  Who knows, though, whether he would have been deemed "meritorious" prior to his college years.  

We need to do as the G. I. Bill did - invest widely, provide opportunity, and let those who rise to it do so.  Shrinking the pool beforehand will only deprive us of individuals who could overcome their poor schooling - like me.  

Yes, it is insulting to suggest that low-income students do not have as much native ability as other students.  But it is even more insulting to pretend that the circumstances of their lives and schooling have no impact on their measured "merit".         


9:27:40 PM    comment []

MORE?  You want MORE?

So, okay, if graduate school didn't burn you out and turn you off research forever, and if you still think someday you might want to become a professor, and you are in the process of searching for postdocs (or wondering how to begin), then please read about the travails of the pseudonymous David Peters.  I feel so bad for him, and for all of you out there like him. 

I remember trying to get my first postdoc - my (first) husband was getting mentored and setup in a cushy postdoc while I had to scramble on my own to find something nearby that would be good for me.  And by nearby, I mean somewhere near Zurich, Switzerland.  So it wasn't that easy.  Being as I did not speak any foreign languages (okay, I did know how to ask for a beer in German, and how to tell a hotel clerk that I would like a room with a bath, in French.)  But I DID find a postdoc and they took me even though all I could do in German was ask for a beer.  (Note to grad students thinking of postdoc-ing in Germany:  if you intend to use the phrase "Ich moechte ein Bier" then you might also want to be able to ask "Wo ist die Toilette?" ["Wo ist die WC?" if you are British].  Extra credit if you are able to interpret the answer.  Maybe you could take your PDA or your iPod or whatever along so you can access Babel Fish.)

So what is the point of all this rambling?  You, like David Peters and I, should be prepared to take the initiative in seeking out a postdoc.  It is lovely if your advisor helps you make contact with a top-notch researcher who happily agrees to take you on.  But as Roseanne Barr once said, "Oh yeah?  I'm still waiting for chocolate air."  You must be prepared to create your own chocolate air.  (And I'm sure you have the facility in the lab to do so.)  David Peters describes "cold-calling" professors he wants to work with.  You must not be polite, gracious, retiring souls waiting for your glories to be discovered and rewarded.  No, you must discover the healthy arrogance within yourself to email someone and describe why you are the missing piece that will make his/her lab complete.  Or words to that effect.  

Don't be afraid to get out there.  Even Zuska, the Goddess of Science and Empress of Engineering, was once a terrified grad student desperately seeking a postdoc.  You will get a postdoc, and you will grow up to be a Goddess.  Zuska is pulling for you.   


7:09:15 PM    comment []


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