Impact of Exposure to a Counter-Stereotypical STEM Television Program on Children’s Gender-and Race-Based STEM Occupational Schema

Abstract

Gender and racial diversity in STEM has been deemed an essential need for a sustainable future, but girls and children from underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds continue to show less interest in STEM than their White and male counterparts. Media has been shown to reflect children’s occupational schema from an early age, and therefore might be used to help broaden children’s beliefs about who participates in STEM. In this field-based pre/post-experimental study, children in kindergarten and first grades (N = 48, 62.5% female, Mage = 6.57) viewed episodes of a STEM-focused educational television series that features a diverse group of protagonists two to three times a week for eight weeks. Their occupational schema were measured before and after exposure. Results suggest there was no quantifiable change in their attitudes. However, qualitative analysis of their open-ended responses sheds light on how children’s beliefs about who participates in STEM are shaped, i.e., by both mediated and real-world exposure.