Investigating the origins of STEM intervention programs: an isomorphic analysis

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, efforts to diversify Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields have relied on a variety of recruitment and retention programs designed to improve access and outcomes of traditionally underrepresented populations. Examining how such programs emerge within institutions of higher education in the United States – including original motivations, sources of funding, and institutional agents involved in the development and stages of implementation of the program – reveals a lack of strategic and systematic approach to diversifying these fields. Drawing on interviews with administrators representing nearly 40 STEM intervention programs at 10 universities in the United States, this study examines program origins through the lens of institutional isomorphism. The analyses provide evidence of mimetic and coercive isomorphism, and little evidence of strategic decision-making and resource allocation.

KEYWORDS:

• Program development
• STEM interventions
• isomorphism
• resource allocation
• institutional agents

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 It should be noted that the Meyerhoff Program is unique in that its level of funding, duration, and outcomes exceed that of other SIPs in the US.

2 Of excluded interviews, four participants simply did not speak to the initial development of the program during the interview, one participant had recently begun their position and lacked in-depth knowledge about the program to speak to its history, and one person talked about the development of their own position within the program rather than of the program itself.

Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number 0856309.