Intersecting Identities: A Look at How Ethnic Identity Interacts With Science Identity in Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Students

Abstract

Understanding the experiences of Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHPI) students in science courses can help us foster inclusivity and belonging for these often excluded and unacknowledged students. Using social influence theory as a framework, we investigated the intersection between ethnic-racial identity and science identity in NHPI students to better understand their experiences in undergraduate Biology courses. We collected both quantitative and qualitative data and used concurrent triangulation design in our mixed-methods approach. Quantitative data include measures of student pre-and post-course science identity, self-efficacy, alignment with science values, sense of be-longing, environmental concern, strength of ethnic-racial identity, and the interaction between ethnic-racial and science identity. We measured environmental concern because NHPI cultures often have strong connections with the environment that may overlap well with environmental science values. Qualitative data included short responses to survey questions that asked students to describe the interaction between their science identity and their ethnicity. We found that NHPI and non-NHPI students do not significantly differ in any construct we measured, nor do they experience different gains across a semester when comparing pre-and post-scores. We also found that NHPI students’ feelings con-cerning the intersection of their ethnic and science identities are varied and complex, with some students expressing feelings of conflict and many others expressing a strengthening relationship between those identities. We discuss implications for instructors and encour-age them to acknowledge the community culture of wealth NHPI students bring to the classroom because of their ethnic-racial identities.