03/11/2026
By Zakkiyya Witherspoon

The School of Education invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Stephanie Austin-Johnson “STEMing the Tide: An Improvement Science Approach to Unlocking Black Girls' Mathematics Identities and STEM Career Pathways."

Candidate: Stephanie Austin-Johnson
Degree: Doctoral- Ed.D. Leadership in Schooling, STEM
Defense Date: March 24, 2026
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Location: Via Zoom
Thesis/Dissertation Title: STEMing the Tide: An Improvement Science Approach to Unlocking Black Girls' Mathematics Identities and STEM Career Pathways

Dissertation Committee

  • Chair: Amie Milkowski, Ed.D., Adjunct Professor, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Committee Member: Eleanor Abrams, Ph.D., Professor, School of Education, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Abstract
Black girls face compounding systemic, structural, and individual barriers that suppress mathematical self-efficacy and limit access to STEM career pathways. Grounded in Black Feminist Theory and improvement science, this three-manuscript dissertation examined the effectiveness of a six-week, drone-based, industry-informed mathematics curriculum intervention on seventh-grade Black girls' STEM attitudes and self-efficacy in an urban school district within one Plan-Study-Do-Act (PDSA) cycle. Using a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, quantitative data were collected via the Friday Institute's S-STEM Student Attitudinal Survey from 55 Black 7th-grade girls and analyzed through paired-sample t-tests; qualitative data were gathered through empathy interviews and student journals, analyzed using Saldaña's two-cycle coding methodology. Results revealed modest but universal 2% positive attitudinal shift across all five S-STEM domains, with Science showing the strongest shift of 2.3%. Qualitative findings identified four themes, most notably an identity-performance gap wherein students demonstrated increased mathematical competence without fully adopting mathematical identities. Findings underscore the need for sustained, culturally affirming, industry-contextualized mathematics interventions to dismantle systemic barriers and expand Black girls' STEM trajectories.

Keywords: industry-based curriculum, mathematics self-efficacy, Black middle school girls, STEM career pathways, project-based learning