Eden Alexander, Dewsbury Bryan M
Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA.
STEM Transformation Institute, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA.
J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2025 Aug 21;26(2):e0001225. doi: 10.1128/jmbe.00012-25. Epub 2025 Apr 8.
Success in STEM majors often depends on students' ability to navigate gateway courses, such as introductory biology, which establishes foundational knowledge and predicts retention in the major. However, disparities in performance within these courses often reflect systemic inequities rather than differences in ability. This study explores the role of cultural wealth, as defined by Yosso's Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) framework, in shaping academic outcomes. Using data from 518 biology majors at a Hispanic-serving institution, we employed latent class analysis to identify distinct subgroups of students based on their cultural wealth profiles. Four latent classes emerged, characterized by varying levels of engagement across the CCW dimensions. Class 1 exhibited the highest cultural wealth but did not achieve the highest grades, highlighting the potential influence of unexamined mediators. Class 2, with moderate responses across dimensions, achieved the highest grades, suggesting a potential interaction of cultural wealth and external supports. Classes 3 and 4, with lower overall cultural wealth, exhibited lower academic performance. These findings reveal the complex interplay between cultural wealth and academic success in biology education.
在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）专业取得成功通常取决于学生学习基础课程的能力，比如生物学导论课程，它奠定基础知识并预示着学生在该专业的留存率。然而，这些课程中学生成绩的差异往往反映的是系统性不平等，而非能力差异。本研究探讨了由约索的社区文化财富（CCW）框架所定义的文化财富在塑造学业成果方面的作用。利用一所西班牙裔服务机构518名生物学专业学生的数据，我们采用潜在类别分析，根据学生的文化财富概况确定不同的学生亚组。出现了四个潜在类别，其特点是在CCW维度上的参与程度各不相同。第一类文化财富最高，但成绩并非最高，这凸显了未被审视的中介因素的潜在影响。第二类在各维度上反应适中，成绩最高，这表明文化财富与外部支持之间可能存在相互作用。第三类和第四类总体文化财富较低，学业表现也较差。这些发现揭示了文化财富与生物学教育中学业成功之间的复杂相互作用。
