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Media Influence on Pre-Middle School African Americans’ Perceptions Toward Science, Mathematics, and Technology Courses and Careers

Presented to the Faculty Regent University School of Communication and the Arts

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy in Communication by Sharon Campbell Waters May 2005


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Dissertation Committee

John D. Keeler, Ph.D. Chair

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Benson Fraser, Ph.D Committee Member

Aridfew CT^Quicke, M.A Committee Member

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©Copyright 2005 Sharon Campbell Waters All Rights Reserved


Abstract A variety of previous studies have suggested that inaccurate, stereotypical or missing media depictions of science, engineering, and technology (SET) workers and fields have contributed to a growing shortage of youth interested in pursuing careers within the scientific endeavor. However, studies on the perceptions of African American youth have not usually been the focus of such research. In this exploratory study, in-depth interviews were conducted with 34 fifth grade African American students to determine the relative influence television and film portrayals of SET workers had on these children’s perceptions of roles in SET fields and careers and school coursework related to them. Framed within the theoretical perspectives of cultivation analysis and the construction of social reality, results indicated the majority of participants perceived scientists as ambiguous, possessing either mythic characteristics of the fantastic persona or they saw them as altruistically inclined figures that saved the world from disease, destruction, and decay. Television and film portrayals of SET workers were found in varying degrees and ways to shape these African American children’s perceptions toward SET careers. While children exhibited self-concepts about SET workers that were sometimes idealistic, distorted, or unrealistic, most had favorable perceptions toward math and science courses in school. However, it was the absence of television and film portrayals of African Americans in SET roles that was problematic for the majority of students. Recommendations for media producers, educators, scientific research foundations, and parents were suggested to dispel some of these commonly found media stereotypes of SET workers and African Americans in these roles and their effects.


Acknowledgements Today, I stand on the shoulders of thousands. I offer a warm and loving thanks first of all to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who has taught me over and over the meaning of Grace. In all graciousness and humility I thank the Chair of my Dissertation Committee, Dr. John Keeler, who has labored endlessly with me in the preparation of this document. Graciousness extends to the members of my Committee, Dr. Benson Fraser and Professor Andrew Quicke who are indeed the best! I offer a thousand thank-you’s to Diane Clark and Suzanne Morton. Thank you for making my Regent sojourn pleasant and memorable. I thank all the wonderful members of the CHROME Club in Hampton Roads, Virginia. You’re the shining stars of science! I dedicate this work to former CHROME Executive Directors, Katura Carey-Harvey and Eleanor Wilson, whose time on this Earth was all too brief, yet their spirits continue to breathe life into CHROME’Svision. I thank the current CHROME leaders, Brad Law, Susie Keele, Sherman Pressley, Theodosa Wyatt and Executive Director, Colonel Rodney Davis who will continue to implement the vision. Much gratitude is also extended to the hundreds of CHROME Sponsors and supporters who have continued to keep the spark of CHROME burning for over 22 years. I thank Dr. Keith Williamson, who first had the vision to bring the National Science Foundation’s GK-12 program to Old Dominion University, and for his encouragement given me during the writing of this dissertation. He has given hope to our children that they too, can pursue careers as scientists, engineers, and technology workers. To my dear colleagues at NASA and the Virginia Space Grant Consortium where the vision was first ignited within me of the tremendous work yet to be done in diversifying the science and engineering workforce, I thank you! I especially thank Judy McGhee, whose support during the past years has truly been appreciated. To my “California” family, Stacey Singleton Henry, Annette Anderson, Sheila Frazier, Beverly Hunter, Camille and Tommy Woolfolk, Beverly W. Cephus; my lifelong friends,


Deborah Fontaine, Debra Boose Alexander, and Brenda Bass; Cousins, Myrtle Byrd, Pamelia Small, Vickie Wallington, Beverly Smith, Gloria P. Boyd, Emma Peasant, Jacqueline and Sylvia DeRnight; and, neighbors, Jean and Marlin Ballard, I thank you for your encouragement and listening to me during the past years talk about “getting my dissertation done.” I finally did it. Praise the Lord! To my family in the Lord, the members of Ebenezer Baptist Church, I love each and every one of you. Thank you Rev. Wynn for graciously shepherding the flock! I thank Dr. Gracie H. Saunders, Dr. Robert Murray, and Paul Mazursky for writing the letters of recommendation at the beginning of this journey at Regent. I have done the work I set out to do. I thank Dr. Maya Angelou at the beginning of this journey for giving “strength to my art” on an airplane ride 14 years ago. The seed was firmly planted. To God be the Glory! And last, but by no means the least,—to my husband and protector, Milton, you are indeed the love of my life! I thank you immensely for your great patience and endurance during the past years that you have toiled with me and for the gift of my son in Christ, Scott Waters. To my family in Nebraska—Henry, Maria, Erica, Mark and Lamont Waters, I thank you. To my brother, Dr. Alfonso Leon Campbell and sister-in-law, Janet Harrell Campbell, I thank you for being beautiful examples of God’s love! I thank my nephews, Micah, Alfonso Leon HI, and niece, Nayo Adia Elizabeth for your being good stewards of the Lord. Continue in the faith! To my mother Lucy B. Campbell, words cannot express the breadth of my love for you. And to all who transitioned to the other side during the writing of this dissertation, Mama Frankie, Aunt Fraz, Aunt Adeline, Uncle Lewis, Aunt Joanna, Mama Doris, Aunt Gloria, and Aunt Mae Lilly —I know you’re watching, rest in peace. A kiss for you daddy, you are truly missed. To the true jewel of my life who has truly taught me the meaning of Grace, my darling daughter, Grace. Continue to grow in the love and wisdom of our Lord! Yes, I am grateful to all on whose shoulders I humbly stand—for being the foundation I needed to cross the finish line. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always!


Table of Contents CHAPTER 1:

Problem.........................................................................................

1

Statement of the Problem...................................................................................... 5 The Problem of the African American/White American Achievement Gap in Mathematicsand Science...........................................................

5

Declining Numbers in the SETWorkforce................................................ 7 The Problem of Past Representations of African Americans in Television And Film-Related Media Content..................................................... 10 The Problem of the Public Image of Science....................................

12

Definitions.............................................................................................. 15 Purpose of the Study...................................................................

16

Significance of the Study.................................................................................... 20 CHAPTER 2: Literature Review.................................................................................... 23 The Role of Television and Film-related Media in Culture............................... 24 Children and Media U se ..................................................................................... 27 National Science Foundation Media Use Studies.................................. 30 Traditional Media Effects Paradigm........................................... Cultivation Analysis .;............................................................................ 33 What Children Learn From Television and How They Learn It............................................................................ 34 The Construction of Social Reality........................................................ 38 Perceived Realism of Media Images versus Real Life Images of Occupational Portrayals.................................................. 40


31

The Construction of Youth Identity by the M edia....................... 42 Identification with Heroes, Celebrities, and Role Models in the Media........................................................................................45 Stereotyping and Information Processing................................................46 Stereotype Threat and the Looking Glass S elf........................... 48 Television and Film-related Media’s Influence on African American Racial Beliefs..................................................................................... 50 Black-Oriented Media Influence on African American Youth....51 African American Portrayals in Television and Film-related Media Content... 54 The Public Image of Science.............................................................................. 58 Pre-Middle School Student’s Epistemologies of Science..................... 62 Occupational Portrayals of SET Workers in Television and Film-related Media Content...................................................................................65 Animated Portrayals of SET Workers in Television..................70 Deficiencies in the Literature.............................................................................71 Assumptions of the Study.................................................................................. 73 Summary............................................................................................................ 75 CHAPTER 3: Method.................................................................................... .............. 76 Qualitative Research Paradigm..........................................................................77 Phenomenology..................................................................................................77 Research Questions............ ............................................................................... 79 Study Participants..............................................................................................81 Selection of Participants.................................................................................... 83


Data Collection Procedures

85

Questionnaire.........................................................................................86 In-depth Interview Strategies.................................................................87 Timeframe..............................................................................................89 Data Recording Procedures.....................................................................90 Verification........................................................................................................92 Conclusion..........................................................................................................93 CHAPTER 4: Key Findings..........................................................................................94 Media Use Questionnaire...................................................................................96 Television as Primary Medium of Study Participants.......................... 96 Careers Selected by Study Participants..................................................97 Study Participants Identification with Black Actors and Actresses And Non-Race Specific Animated Characters................................ 98 Sources of Career Information for Study Participants.......................... 99 In-Depth Interviews......................................................................................... 100 Study Participants’ Perceptions of Portrayals of Scientists, Engineers, and Technology Workers in Television and Film-related Media Content.................................................................................. 102 Study Participants Perceptions of African American Portrayals of Scientists, Engineers, and Technology Workers in Television And Film-related Media Content....................................................103


The Influence of Television and Film-related Media Content on Study Participants’ Perception of School Math and Science Courses and Careers........................................................................ 103 Draw-A-Scientist Test Findings (URM)...........................................................106 The Black Tween as Aspirational Viewer.........................................................120 Days of Our Lives: Television as Mirror of the S elf........................................121 Gender-stereotyped Occupational Portrayals...................................................125 Other Occupational Influences......................................................................... 127 Identification with African American Characters or Roles Frequently and Recently Seen in Television and Film-related Content...............................128 Perceived Realism of African American Characters or Roles as SET Workers in Television and Film-related Media Content.................129 Perceived Realism of the Ambiguity of SET Workers’ Characters Or Roles by Study Participants: The Polysemy of the Im age.........133 Perceived Realism of the Ambiguity of SET Workers’ Characters Or Roles by Study Participants: The Altruistic Scientist................143 Perceptions of Math and Science Courses and Careers by Study Participants.................

145

Conclusion........................................................................................................ 147 CHAPTER 5: Discussion, Conclusions, Implications, and Recommendations For Future Research....................................

149

Discussion........................................................................................................ 151 Media Use Questionnaire..................................................................... 151


X

In-Depth Interviews...........................................................................154 Insight into the World of Work from Television and FilmRelated Media Content.....................................................155 Identification with African American Characters in Television and Film Content in SET R oles......................158 Identification with SET Workers’ Roles in Television and Film-related Media Content................................................160 Perceptions of Math and Science Courses............................ 161 Draw-A-Scientist Test (URM) Findings........................................... 163 Conclusions................................................................................................... 170 Perceived Realism............................................................................. 171 Learning—An Important Consequence of Television and Film Viewing of SET Workers and Careers......................................... 173 Implications of the Study...............................................................................175 Implications for Media Producers, Directors, and W riters............... 175 Implications for Educators................................................................ 179 Implications for the National Science Foundation and Other Scientific Organizations Research Initiatives...............................182 Implications for the Public Understanding of Science Community... 184 Implications for Parents.....................................................................185 Methodological Implications.........................................................................186 Strengths of Current Methodological Approach............................... 186 Weaknesses of the Methodological Approach.................................. 188


xi

Theoretical Implications..................................................................................189 Cultivation Analysis and the Construction of Social Reality..............189 Weaknesses of Current Theoretical Implications................................192 Recommendations for Future Research of Media Influence on Children’s Perceptions of SET Workers, Careers, and Coursework.....................194 Final Conclusion.............................................................................................;198 REFERENCES.................

199

APPENDIX A - INTERVIEW PROTOCOL..............................................................222 APPENDIX B- SAMPLE INTERVIEW........................................

227

APPENDIX C- CONSENT FORMS..........................................................................244 APPENDIX D- DRAW-A-SCIENTIST TEST DRAWINGS....................................248 CHROME Draw-A-Scientist Test (URM) Drawings.............. 248 NSF GK-12 Draw-A-Scientist Test (URM) Drawings............ 257 APPENDIX E - MEDIA USE QUESTIONNAIRE FINDINGS TABLE 1 ............... 268 APPENDIX F - CHROME EDITORIAL....................................................................269


xii

List of Tables and Figures Table 1 - Media Usage by GK-12 and CHROME Respondents...................................269 Table 2 - Images of a Scientist or Engineer Indicators - CHROME...........................113 Table 3 - Images of a Scientist or Engineer Indicators - GK-12..................................114 Table 4 - Student Perceptions of Themselves as Scientists or Engineers Indicators - CHROME..........................................................115 Table 5 - Student Perceptions of Themselves as Scientists or Engineers Indicators - GK-12................................................................116 Figures Figure 1 - DAST Drawing - First Deaf Scientist..........................................................107 Figure 2 - DAST Drawing - The 21st Century Scientist - The Fix It M an..................108 Figure 3 - DAST Drawing - Current Scientist versus Past Scientist work with Energy

........................................................................................ 109

Figure 4 - DAST Drawing -Scientist at Work..............................................................110 Figure 5 - DAST Drawing - Take Off and Landing - Future NASA Controls Engineer.............................................................................................. 117 Figure 6 - DAST Drawing - Scientist in an Underground Lab......................................118 Figure 7 - DAST Drawing - Scientist on a Trampoline.................................................118 Figure 8 - DAST Drawing - Future Forensic Scientist..........................


119

1

Chapter 1: Problem "This is a strange image, he said, and they are strange prisoners. Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their shadows, or the shadows o f one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall o f the cave? True, he said: how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads? And o f the objects which are being carried in like manner they would see only the shadows? Yes, he said. And i f they were able to talk with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them? ” The Republic of Plato, Book Seven. (Jowett Translation.)

At the dawn of the 21st Century, Congresswoman Constance A. Morelia (Maryland) developed and sponsored legislation creating the Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development to address the problems facing America’s scientific, engineering, and technological enterprise. Mandated by this legislation to analyze and describe the current status of women, underrepresented minorities and persons with disabilities in the science, engineering, and technology (SET) pipeline, the Commission was additionally instructed to develop and disseminate recommendations regarding the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities in SET education and careers. Fulfilling their mandate, the Commission presented their final report, Land o f Plenty: Diversity as America’s Competitive Edge in Science, Engineering and Technology (2000), to the National Science Foundation (NSF), the publisher. Acknowledging the fact that if women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities were represented in the U.S. SET workforce in parity with their percentages in the total workforce population, this shortage could be greatly mitigated, the Commission spent over a year examining the barriers that exist for women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities.


One of the problems identified in the Commission’s report was the public image of SET workers. The report documented its concern that the public image of SET workers is often both “inaccurate and derogatory”(p. 4) and that workers in these fields are portrayed in television and film-related media as “unattractive, reclusive, socially inept white men or foreigners working in dull, unglamorous careers”(p. 59). In addition, the report implied that less than accurate media portrayals of SET workers and inadequate media portrayals reflecting the participation of underrepresented minorities in SET fields was one of the causes for such groups not pursuing undergraduate studies in fields of the scientific endeavor (p. 5). The report suggested that positive and increased media portrayals of underrepresented persons in science and engineering would help alleviate a significant problem (p. 5). It must be noted, however, that not all images of SET workers have been negative, nor have all images suggested that scientists are all socially inept white men. For example, in July 1976, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) employed Nichelle Nichols, an African American actress who often rewired or repaired her own communications board in her role as the futuristic Communications Officer of Star Trek’s U.S. S. Enterprise, as a popular public image of a scientist, engineer, and technology (SET) worker. However, after inviting qualified candidates of all races and both genders to participate in NASA’s Space Shuttle program, only a hundred applications from women and fewer than thirty-five from minorities, “none of whom were qualified,” (Bums and Miles, 1995, p. 37) had been received eight months into the yearlong recruitment drive.


Not understanding why more women and minorities were not responding to its call, Nichols was recruited as a consultant to assist in developing symposia for minority youth (p. 38). In March and April of 1977, NASA produced a television commercial with Lieutenant Uhura who, surrounded by models of the Space Shuttle and the Enterprise, encouraged qualified minorities and women to apply to NASA. Bums & Miles (1995) included Nichols’ plea which stated: Hi, I’m Nichelle Nichols. Kind of looks like when I was Uhura on the Starship Enterprise, doesn’t it? Well, now there’s a twentieth-century Enterprise, an actual space vehicle built by NASA and designed to put us in the business of space, not merely space exploration. NASA’s Enterprise is a space shuttlecraft, built to make regularly scheduled runs into space and back. Now the shuttle will be taking scientists and engineers, men and women of all races, into space, just like the astronaut crew on the starship Enterprise. So that is why I’m speaking to the whole family of humankind, minorities and women alike. If you qualify and would like to be an astronaut, now is the time. This is your NASA. (pp. 40-41) NASA received over 8,000 applications, 1,649 from women and over one thousand from minorities (p. 41). From this number, the first shuttle astronauts were selected— including six women, three African Americans, and an Asian American (p. 41). Three African American astronaut trainees were selected: Guy Bluford, the first African American to travel into space; Frederick Gregory, the first African American Deputy Administrator (recently promoted to the top NASA position, Acting Administrator, after the resignation of the Administrator on February 20,2005); and


Ronald McNair, the first African American astronaut to die in space during the Challenger space mission in 1986. One might question NASA’s intention for using a fictitious character to recruit personnel for such a crucial NASA mission. Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking indicated inNSF’s Science and Engineering Indicators (2002) that “science fiction is useful both for stimulating the imagination and for diffusing fear of the future” (p. 7-35). The same study also acknowledged that an interest in science fiction may be an “important factor in leading men and women to become interested in science as a career” (p. 7-35). Anecdotal evidence was found on Internet discussion lists wherein scientists often admitted they were inspired to become scientists by their “keen interest in science fiction as children” (p. 7-35). This study primarily explores African American 5th grade students’ perceptions of SET workers and occupations. It focuses on how media portrayals of SET workers may have influenced the perceptions African American children have of SET careers, roles within them, and on the mathematics and science courses that will prepare them for such careers and roles. The study concentrates on students’ perceptions of SET media portrayals within television, film, and related media such as video tapes, DVDs, and video games. Although the general problem of the public image of science has been discussed earlier in this chapter, additional issues exist that may help to shed further light on the problem of the public image of the SET worker. These are presented in the section that follows.


Statement o f the Problem There are a number of very practical reasons for pursuing research dealing with media influence on African American children’s perceptions of scientific disciplines and their practitioners. Only a few researchers (Van Sertima, 1983; Barrett, 1992; Hrabowski, Maton, & Greif, 1998; Hrabowski, Maton, Greif, & Greene, 2002) have focused upon the entire scientific enterprise, a metaphor inclusive of the spectrum of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as it relates to academic coursework and science, engineering, and technology (SET) careers for African American youth. Although the primary problem underlying the proposed research is the public image of science, a number of related problems possibly affecting the public image of science within the African American community must be explored. The first is the oftreported achievement gap between African American and Caucasian children (NSF, 2000, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, 1999; 2004). The Problem o f the African American/White American Achievement Gap in Mathematics and Science Most significant literature regarding African American youth conducted by major scientific organizations such as the NSF and NASA are studies that have consistently emphasized the large gap in achievement scores in math and science between White and Black students (NSF, 2000, Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, 1999,2004; National Assessment of Education Progress Report, 2000). Such disparities in achievement scores have been attributed to such variables as social background differences in achievement as children begin school (Lee & Burkham, 2002), poor quality of math and science teachers in K-12 education (Glenn Commission Report, 1999),


deficiencies in adequate curriculum and instructional materials in the math and science classroom (TIMSS Report, 1999; 2004), lack of racial and ethnic groups taking more advanced mathematics and science courses (National Science Foundation, 2002), and gaps in access to computers and the Internet between high-and low-poverty schools (National Science Foundation, 2002). The most recent Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) report (2004) indicated Singapore students were among the top performers in both mathematics and science at the fourth and eighth grade levels. Students from the Republic of Korea, Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong SAR also performed very well across the two subject areas. Fourth grade U.S. students ranked 12th out of 25 countries in mathematics while eighth grade U. S. students ranked 15th out of 46 countries in mathematics. Additionally, fourth grade U.S. students ranked 6th out of 25 countries in science while eighth grade U. S. students ranked 9th out of 46 countries in science. More than 360,000 students representing all races and ethnicities in 46 countries participated in this international assessment conducted every four years. Although most studies (National Assessment of Education Progress Report, 2000; TIMSS Report, 1999; 2004) have provided valid evidence that the achievement of African American students in general is far below their potential, some researchers (Hilliard and Sizemore, 1984; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Hilliard, 2003) have stated that this achievement gap—often considered as the gap between African American and White Americans students as opposed to the gap between African American and Latino or Asian students—should instead be considered as the gap “between the current performance of African [American] students and levels of excellence” (Hilliard, 2003, p.


138). By raising expectations, it is thought that higher performance levels should and would follow naturally (p. 138). Although the focus of this study does not represent all races or ethnicities of children in the United States, it is concerned with the extent wherein media create or fail to create models of excellence for African American children, particularly in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. One may surely question if it indeed is the role of media to present models of excellence for any particular minority. If media images help “shape our view of the world and our deepest values: what we consider good or bad, positive or negative, moral or evil; our sense of class, of ethnicity and race, of nationality, of sexuality; and of ‘us’ and ‘them’,” as Kellner (2003, p. 9) has suggested, then media industry leaders assume some responsibility to ensure that their media content depicts people of all cultures as models of excellence. The problem of the achievement gap between African Americans and White Americans is assumed then to fuel the problem of a shortage of African Americans and other ethnic groups in the SET workforce. African Americans accounted for about 3% of scientists and engineers, and other ethnic groups represented less than 0.5 % (NSF, 2004). In the following section this problem is discussed in greater detail. Declining Numbers in the SET Workforce According to the Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology Development’s report (2000), the fact that women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities are not adequately portrayed by the media as participating in SET careers may be a factor in the


achievement of college degrees in SET fields by students in such groups. This would eventually lead to employment within the SET career sector. Mervis (2003) reported that in April 2003,250 scientists descended on Washington, D.C. to urge federal legislators to boost funding for the physical sciences and engineering, so that more scientists could be trained. With decreasing numbers of Americans entering the SET professions, the country was threatened with an insufficient supply of professionals to satisfy demand for services in these professions. In addition, the representatives of scientific organizations present that day warned legislators that students in the United States were producing low scores in math and science (TIMSS, 1999; National Assessment of Education Progress Report, 2000) and avoiding academic courses in these areas. Low participation rates of women and minorities in these fields, despite an increasingly diverse American society, further accentuated the problem, leading to an over-reliance on foreign talent in the science and engineering workforce. George Langford, a biologist at Dartmouth College, observed that America faced a “looming crisis based on the country’s inability to train enough U.S.-born talent” (Mervis 2003, p. 1070). Shirley Ann Jackson, African American female president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, also warned about “looming holes in the scientific workforce.. .that represent a shortfall in our national scientific and technical capabilities” ((Mervis, 2003 p. 1071). Although neither of these leaders or other observers seemed to be able to predict when this crisis might peak, consensus seemed to be that pre-college training for prospective scientists and engineers needed improvement and that African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans are seriously underrepresented among those pursuing science and engineering degrees.


Furthermore, a National Science and Technology Council report (2000) indicated that while, historically, non-Hispanic white males have made up a large fraction of U.S. scientists and engineers, in the 21sl century this fraction of the U.S. population is projected to decrease significantly. The report also noted that, although other U.S. population groups, such as Hispanics and African Americans, form a much smaller part of the high-tech workforce, their populations as a fraction of the total U.S. population are expected to increase significantly within the next 50 years. Consequently, high-tech careers will have to become more attractive to everyone in society—women and men from all backgrounds and all parts of the nation. Despite these observations and predictions, few scholars (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan & Signorielli, 1985; Gerbner, 1987) and no scholars within the past 17 years in communication or related fields have chosen to analyze media’s influence on underrepresented minorities in the SET workforce and in science and engineering education from a communication perspective. As Foss, Foss, and Trapp (1991) have articulated, perspective is a set of “conceptual lenses through which a person views the world” (p. 17). These conceptual lenses can and do influence the way we interpret what we see, including perspectives of SET workers and careers. In order to fully comprehend African American student perceptions about media portrayals of SET fields and workers, a review of historical representations of African Americans in television and film-related media would be helpful. Although the participants in the current research were not even bom when media depictions of African Americans were criticized, more often (pre-1980s), some of these portrayals are still viewed in syndicated reruns that are often telecast.


10

The following section provides a brief discussion of historical representations of African Americans in television and film-related media. The Problem o f Past Representations ofAfrican Americans in Television and FilmRelated Media Content It has often been contended that children growing up in a Black community in the United States fail to get a sense of security or a sense that they are loved and accepted when they are exposed to television, magazines, films videos, advertising media, picture books, and other media content The most successful and powerful people in the most powerful roles that they observe in the media, particularly in media content of the past, have tended to be White. These images may affect their attitudes and perceptions toward many professional fields or occupations, including those in the SET fields of endeavor. Consequently, African American children may avoid or fail to achieve excellence in science and math courses in school for a number of reasons. For example, they may find that limited or distorted television and film portrayals of SET fields and their practitioners are unappealing if such media portrayals of African Americans in SET settings or roles are unrepresentative, distorted, or missing entirely. Such distortions or omissions may also result in a lack of motivation for African Americans pursuing SET careers. If stereotyping, prejudice, and propaganda all conspire to distort individual, group, and cultural images, as scholars have observed, (Hamilton, 1979; Hamilton, Stroessner & Driscoll, 1994; Steele, 1992,1997,1998) part of the problem in attracting


African American youth to careers in science and engineering may be the poor depictions of SET fields and portrayals of occupational roles within them in media content. In addition to these practical concerns, a need exists for studies that focus solely on African American children and that add to the general body of research on the portrayal of African Americans in the media and its effects. Although there have been many studies (Greenberg, 1972; Tan, 1979; Graves, 1980,1982, 1993; Berry, 1982; Stroman, 1986) that deal with the effects of media depictions of African Americans on the perceptions of African American youth, and many scholars have suggested or found evidence that African Americans have been generally portrayed poorly in media content, both fictional and non-fictional (Cripps, 1977, 1993; Bogle, 1991,2001; Gerbner, 1987; Guerrero, 1993; hooks, 1996; Holtzman, 2000; Steele, 1997), rare studies exist on the effects of media depictions of the African American scientist, engineer, and technology (SET) worker on the perceptions of African American youth. Taking these factors into consideration, an assumption of this study is that the problem of the African American-White American achievement gap in mathematics and science has presumably led fewer African Americans to pursue degrees in SET fields that will lead to SET careers. In addition, somewhat distorted representations of SET workers and SET fields in television, film, and other media content may be one of the reasons underrepresented minorities generally, and African Americans particularly, have not pursued studies in SET fields leading to SET careers. Finally, a limited number of African Americans being depicted positively in SET roles within media content may be a reason why African American children frequently avoid these SET careers and school coursework that prepares them for such careers.


12

The Problem o f the Public Image o f Science According to Lester (1996), a necessary function of the brain is assigning classifications as it sorts and remembers symbolic representations of the input from the senses in order to determine immediately if something is helpful or harmful (p. xi). This higher brain function being natural and necessary allows one to easily recognize a person’s skin color, sex, age, clothing, accent and other characteristics. However, as Lester noted, stereotyping is a mental activity that is neither natural nor necessary, because, when media depictions are stereotypical or distorted, misleading representations about diverse cultural groups are either shaped or confirmed in the minds of audiences that are exposed to them (p. xi). Harmful generalizations are usually formulated that eventually deny or inhibit particular groups’ contributions to society. While news and other non-fictional treatments of SET fields, and particular roles within them, help shape public perceptions, it may be fictional depictions and accounts that have the greatest influence. For example, Turney (1998) documented stories about the doings of biologists over the past two centuries are recounted and examined for the purpose of constructing a history of science that is more concerned with how non scientists have interpreted, or made sense of, what they thought was happening (p. 3). Turney argued that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein story governs much of today’s debate about the new age of biotechnology. Turney (1998) wrote: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has long been a versatile frame for interpreting mankind’s relationship with technology. [She] did not, in any plausible usage, offer predictions about the future of science. But she did, at the very start of the


modem era, identify concerns which go to the heart of our response to science. Her story about finding the secret of life has become one of the most important myths of modernity, (p. 2) Turney’s premise, that fictional representations matter and that the “science and technology we ultimately see are partly shaped by the images of the work which exist outside the confines of the laboratory report or the scientific paper” (p. 3) is a basic premise of this study. This study addresses Turney's notion more specifically by exploring the extent and specific ways in which images, perceptions, and belief systems of African American students are being shaped by recent television and film-related media portrayals of SET practitioners engaged in their representative fields of study. More specifically, it is an effort to assess the influence these images have upon these children's perceptions toward math and science classes and to examine what particular images, symbols, beliefs, feelings, concepts, and emotions have become strongly associated with their ability or inability to envision themselves as scientists or engineers or to aspire to careers within the SET fields. Although scientific scholars worldwide have generally concurred that the process of scientific and technological advancements are poorly understood by the general public (National Science Foundation 1982,1996,2000,2002,2004), evidence has suggested that poor images of science are probably not the only cause of students’ failing to pursue careers in these fields. Other barriers cited in recent literature do exist in preparing students for the SET workforce. These include serious deficiencies in educational resources (e.g., well-prepared teachers, physical infrastructure, technological resources,


and curriculum standards); the lack of high-quality science and mathematics preparation in high school, and the rising costs of college tuition and the deficiency of scholarships and grants available to students, especially for low-income students (NSF, 2000). Still, it is the images of science, seemingly derived to a great extent from media portrayals, which constitute a powerful and important influence in this respect. Fullilove (1987) indicated that, although television viewing can have both positive and negative effects, it also can promote racial and sexual stereotypes and perceptions of occupational segregation, or it can help change attitudes toward the races and sexes, depending on the content of programming. This is true also of film viewing which, according to hooks (1996), assumes a “pedagogical” role in the lives of many people (p. 2). hooks wrote: It may not be the intent of a filmmaker to teach audiences anything, but that does not mean that lessons are not learned. Changing how we see images is clearly one way to see the world.. .much of the magic of cinema lies in the medium’s power to give us something other than life as it is. (pp. 6,9) Brott (1993) noted that, between the ages of three and five, occupation is viewed as an adult function; between nine and thirteen, occupational aspirations are oriented to social validation; and at age fourteen and beyond, inner orientation eliminates occupations incompatible with one’s interests and abilities. Jewett (1994) stated that the elementary school level has been shown to be the most crucial time to influence students’ attitudes toward science and careers related to science. Therefore, it is an optimal time to


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examine media’s influence on 5th grade African American student perceptions of media portrayals of SET fields, careers, and roles and mathematics and science coursework in school. Definitions Several terms have been operationally defined for the purposes of this study. The terms science and technology (S & T), science, engineering, and technology (SET), and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have been used often and at times interchangeably in the study. For clarification purposes the term science is defined more specifically as “a way of constructing meaning that systematically uses particular ways of observing, thinking, investigating, and communicating to develop interconnected ideas about the physical and biological world” (Sunal & Sunal, 2003). Scientists investigate what is; they discover new knowledge by peering into the unknown. In the proposed research, the term scientist refers mostly to one who practices in the natural and physical sciences, as opposed to the life or biological sciences, which usually implies a practitioner in the medical field, whose portrayal is seldom underrepresented in television and film-related media. Engineering, on the other hand, differs radically from science as a profession. It is more oriented to business and problem-solving and is highly sensitive to technological change. The engineering practitioner uses material sources, knowledge, skills and experience to solve concrete practical problems in specific contexts. The engineer creates solutions to these concrete problems that have never existed before. They create what has not been. Physical science and mathematics are gateways to engineering.


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Technology is derived from the Greek tekhne, which means “craft” or “art,” and logia, which means “the study o f’—the study of crafting, in which crafting refers to the “shaping of resources, either material or nonmaterial, such as information, for a practical purpose” (Kurzweil, 1999). Appearing long before the modem sense of the concept science, one of the primary applications of technology is.communication, and language provides the foundation for human communication. A critical survival skill, communication enabled human families and tribes to develop “cooperative strategies to overcome obstacles and adversaries” (p. 17). Fouche' (2003) noted that, since technologies traditionally do not “design and build themselves, they usually do not exhibit biases on their own” (p. 2). Therefore, Fouche' concluded, “humans must not forget their place in the construction of the forms and the production of the meanings of technology” (p. 2). Mathematics is the foundation of science, engineering, and technology. The National Science Foundation (2002) asserted that 70% of America’s public has a poor understanding of science. Therefore, encouraging general public understanding of science, particularly among young children, is indeed of utmost importance today. Purpose o f the Study Although all representations of ethnic and other groups in media content have not been stereotypical or negative, Berry and Asamen (2001) observed that television and other media have contributed toward the negative perception of the social contributions made by ethnic minorities, women, religious groups, social and economic groups, and a variety of other cultural groups (p. 371). Furthermore, the authors indicated that these inaccurate representations can become a part of the individual’s schema about others and


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can serve as the basis for faulty beliefs about others, prejudiced thinking, and subtle and not-so-subtle stereotypes, (p. 371) The specific purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the ways wherein television and film-related media portrayals of SET careers and SET workers have influenced a group of 5th grade African American students’ perceptions of SET careers, of SET workers, and of mathematics and science courses taken at school. Again, the primary assumption behind the purpose of the study is that the mass media, in general, and the content in television, film and related media, in particular, provide substantial amounts of information about scientists, engineers, and persons who work with computers and other forms of information technologies. In fictional content, this information may or may not be accurate and may or may not be central to characters’ lives. Nevertheless, it may shape the perceptions of children of all ages that are exposed to it, including African American and other minority group children who may be underrepresented in such depictions. Additionally, entertainment storylines about scientific fields may influence the perceptions of at-risk audiences of children about the relevance of mathematics, science, and technology in their everyday lives, and it may inhibit the development of interests in these school subjects that are necessary for pursuing SET careers. A study that explores the perceptions of African American youth toward scientifically-oriented subject matter in television and film-related media content also may encourage television writers, producers, and programming executives to include more storylines in such content that deal with SET workers, careers, and portrayals of African American and other underrepresented minorities in this context.


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Another important reason to explore the influence of media portrayals of the scientific spectrum of professions and professionals on African American youth is that it has often been assumed that people of African descent have not been involved in the scientific and technological revolution of the past and have not made any meaningful contributions to science and technology (Van Sertima, 1983; Fouche, 2003). Van Sertima (1983) wrote: Even notable African scholars...have come to the conclusion that the African invented nothing, explored nothing, but occupied some sensory or emotional realm in his experience of the natural world, (p. 5) This false assumption has been reflected in mainstream print, television, and film media since the inception of mass communication in the early 20th Century. For example, few African American youth today are aware of inventor Granville Woods (1856-1910), who was inventing voice communication devices within the same time frame that the telephone was introduced to the world (p. 215). Furthermore, few African American youth are aware of the contributions of Lewis Latimer (1848-1928), a corporate engineer with General Electric, who invented an inexpensive cotton-thread filament which made electric light practical for homes (p. 215). Regarding these omissions of Black scientists and engineers in the media, Fouche' (2003) wrote the following: In American society, a society obsessed with every minute detail of its historical past, it is strange and unfortunate that popular and scholarly American history disregards the ways black people produce, shape, and affect technological change. (P-2)


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Wyer and Adaval (2004) asserted that “people might come to regard situations that occur frequently on television as normative” (p. 139). This might be one of the reasons that the African American SET worker is rarely seen on television and in filmrelated media content. Wyer and Adaval (2004) further acknowledged: On the one hand, exposure to women and African Americans as heads of state, lawyers, or scientists could increase people’s perceptions that their occupancy of these roles is commonplace and, therefore, could also increase their acceptance of individuals holding these positions in the real world. On the other hand, individuals might use the situations and events that occur frequently on television as standards of comparison in evaluating their own life circumstances and may be motivated to engage in behavior that attains these standards, (p. 139) Thus, a study on African American children’s perceptions of media portrayals of SET workers and their respective scientific fields of endeavor would be an important marker for ascertaining the influence media may or may not have in contributing to early career decisions of children generally, and to young African American viewers, particularly. Cultivation analysis (Gerbner, 1976) and the construction of social reality (Berger & Luckmann, 1967; Adoni & Mane, 1984) are theoretical frameworks through which the perceptions of SET fields, roles, and workers by African American youth will be explored. These will be discussed at length in Chapter 2.


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Three guiding research questions will be addressed in this study of African American 5th grade students and their perceptions of SET fields, careers, roles, and the science and mathematics coursework that will prepare them for this. RQ1: What are 5th grade African American students’ perceptions of the world of work in television and film-related media content? RQ2: Do 5th grade African American children identify with African American characters or roles they have frequently and recently seen in television and film content, particularly those in science, engineering, or technology workers roles? RQ3: How are 5th grade African American students’ perceptions of math and science courses in school and careers within the scientific disciplines being influenced by portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers in television and film content they have frequently and recently viewed? Research questions are discussed further in Chapter 3. Significance o f the Study Comstock (1993) wrote: The influence of the medium [of television] resides not in affecting how people behave but in what they think about. The medium becomes a sociocultural force not because people are what they see, but because what they see and talk about are important parts of their experience, (p. 118) The results of this study will fill a void in the scholarly literature that exists in the area of media portrayals of SET workers (Gerbner, 1987; Fullilove, 1987) and media’s influence of African American portrayals of SET workers in television and film-related . media on African American students’ perceptions of SET fields, careers, and


mathematics and science coursework in school. It also generally should contribute to the area of media effects research that has dealt with media content portrayals of ethnic groups, occupations, and roles and their influence on the thinking and behavior of children. Again, such research has rarely focused on African American children's perceptions in this respect. The results of the study may not only lead to greater understanding within both the scientific academic community and the television and film industry in this respect, but, as stated earlier in the purpose statement, may also provide an impetus to entertainment producers, writers, and directors to reconsider the presentation of media portrayals of SET workers and the lack of diversity of these workers as portrayed in television and film-related media today. This could lead to more efforts to provide media content with positive depictions of SET workers and of African-Americans in significant roles in the SET fields and other contexts. More positive and representative portrayals could lead to increasingly positive attitudes towards science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This would stimulate achievement in these areas of study and selection of scientific, engineering, and technological careers within the African American communities. Such depictions also could help diminish the previously discussed and welldocumented practical need for all American children to become more amenable to study science and math and to consider the pursuit of SET careers. This shortage of both skills and interests among African-American and other youth in minority groups is especially acute. This study should lead not only to a greater, more detailed understanding of this problem, but it is hoped that specific solutions to the problem will emerge and may be


recommended, such as the addition of a media literacy component within national programs of scientific research concerned with motivating young minorities to enter careers in science, engineering, technology, and mathematics. In Chapter 2, literature that relates to the purposes of this study and subject area is reviewed. In addition, deficiencies in the body of literature and basic assumptions that underlie this particular study are provided.


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Chapter 2: Literature Review “... in the general process o f image-formation and cultivation, fa c t’ and fable ’play equally significant and interrelated roles. ” George Gerbner, 1987

In Chapter 1, a discussion of the problem of the public image of science and its other associative problems: the problem of the Black American-White American achievement gap; the problem of the science, engineering, and technology (SET) workforce; and the problem of the historical representation of African Americans in television and film-related media content were presented. The purpose, significance, and research questions of the study were also discussed. In this chapter, two bodies of literature will be reviewed that reflect the primary theoretical perspectives through which the study of the problem of the public image of science and its other associative problems presented in this study are framed: cultivation analysis and the construction of social reality. In the first section of this chapter, the literature associated with the role of television and film-related media in culture is discussed (Hall, 1981; Kellner, 2003). One of the primary assumptions in this study is that mass media, in general, and the content in television and film-related media, in particular, provide substantial amounts of information about scientists, engineers, and persons who work with computers and other forms of information technologies through storylines in entertainment programming. The second section contains a discussion of the literature on children and media use (Singer and Singer, 2001; Berry, 1988), which is particularly important in a study that seeks to understand how youth are cultivated by certain television shows and movies and how the degree of cultivation ultimately affects how youth construct their social realities.


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The third section provides a significant overview of the traditional media effects/influence paradigm (Jefffes, 1997; Signorielli, 2001; Schrum, 2004) and presents the literature and discussions on cultivation analysis (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan and Signorielli, 1980,1993; Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, Signorielli and Shanahan, 2002), the construction of social reality (Berger & Luckmann, 1967; Adoni & Mane, 1984), stereotyping and information processing (Hamilton, 1979; Hamilton, Stroessner, & Driscoll, 1994; Pieterse, 2003), stereotype threat (Steele, 1992, 1997, 1998; Perry, Steele, & Hilliard, 2003), and television and film-related media’s influence on African American racial beliefs (Allen & Hatchett, 1986; Allen, 1993). The fourth section presents an overview of African American portrayals in television and film-related media content during the past five decades (Bogle, 1991, 2001; Gerbner, 1987; Guerrero, 1993; hooks, 1996; Holtzman, 2000; Steele, 1992, 1997; Perry, Steele, & Hilliard, 2003). The fifth section includes literature on the public image of science (Gerbner, 1987; Weart, 1988), including occupational portrayals in television and film-related media content (Wroblewski & Huston, 1987; Bryant & Zillmann, 1994). The review of the literature begins with a discussion of the role of television and filmrelated media in culture and its role in the current study. The Role o f Television and Film-related Media in Culture As stated earlier in this chapter, one of the assumptions of the study is that media should not only entertain, but should also assume an educational role, based on theories, such as Bandura’s social learning and later social cognitive theories (1977, 1986, 1994). These theories provide thorough insights on what viewers, particularly young children, tweens and teens, learn from television and other film-related media content.


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According to Mitroff (2004) America’s current teen population is thirty-one million and is projected to grow to thirty-five million by 2010. The tween participants in the current study will be teenagers in 2010 and, according to the market research firm Teen Research Unlimited, teen spending will continue to increase at the rate of 6% annually. Teens also will continue to spend in excess of 82% of their income, which will be up from study’s reported $172 billion in 2001 to $291 billion in 2010 (Mitroff, 2004). Thus, as the baby boomers (1946 - 1964) continue to age, the tween generation, now tagged “Generation M (for Media)” by the Kaiser Family Foundation (2005), will be the driving force that most likely transforms the role of the media from being a provider of entertainment, information, and the “production and transformation of ideologies” (Hall, 1981, p. 89) to being a provider of a variety of interactive, immersive, and virtual experiences with no meaning at all. Baudrillard (1994) addressed this transformative worldview of the media by stating the following: Thus, information dissolves meaning and dissolves the social, in a sort of nebulous state dedicated not to a surplus of innovation, but, on the contrary, to total entropy. Thus the media are producers not of socialization, but of exactly the opposite, of the implosion of the social in the masses... This implosion should be analyzed according to McLuhan’s formula, the medium is the message, the consequences of which have yet to be exhausted, (p. 81) Baudrillard (1994) and McLuhan (cited in Baudrillard, 1994) asserted that “only the media can make an event—whatever the contents, whether they are conformist or subversive” (p. 82). Hall (1981) contended “ideologies produce different forms of social consciousness, rather than being produced by them” (p. 90), thus implying a media


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replete with meaning, and a “powerful source of ideas about race” (p. 90). Writer and coExecutive Producer of Boston Law, Kenny Lenhart (cited in Mitroff, 2004) asserted that “entertainment is a primary effect of television viewing...they’re not looking for insight because they get it at school” (p. 59), while the WB’s network’s Bob Bibb (cited in Mitroff, 2004)stated: I don’t think anybody makes television shows thinking that they’re not going to have a good effect, but I guess it’s all about entertainment in some [producers’] minds—‘Will this person, will this show entertain people?’ Unfortunately, that sometimes may come first instead of ‘Does it have any sort of value system to it?’ I think if you can have a happy medium, it makes you feel a hell of a lot better. At least you’re making some effort to leave some good with young people, (p. 59) Thus, it does appear that the role of television and film-related media has a variety of relevant functions to one’s everyday experiences. Although most people associated with the production and distribution of television, film, and related media for and about youth may concede that entertainment is a primary effect of television, film, and related media, they would probably not deny that one of the consequences of pre-adolescent and adolescent television viewing does involve some form of learning (Mitroff, 2004). According to Kellner (2003): The media are a profound and often misperceived source of cultural pedagogy: They contribute to educating us how to behave and what to think, feel, believe, feel and desire—and what not to. The media are forms of pedagogy that teach us how to be men and women. They show us how to dress, look, and consume; how to react to members of different social groups; how to be popular and successful


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and how to avoid failure; and how to conform to the dominant system of norms, values, practices, and institutions, (p. 9) Thus, Kellner’s contention that media culture provides materials for individuals to “create identities and meanings” (p. 16) could somehow explain how young children, tweens, and teens use video games and music videos on television as an escape from the rules of traditional society (p. 16). A further discussion of what children learn from television has been provided in the cultivation analysis section of this chapter. In order to fully comprehend how media influence children at every stage of their developmental level, through cultivation processes and the construction of social reality framework, one must first review how children use media. Children and Media Use Empirical studies conducted over the past half century have validated the fact that, given exposure, media content can and does influence children’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors (Kaiser Family Foundation Report, 19991, 2005). The evidence is of such magnitude that few mass communication scholars have hesitated to list mass media as equal in importance to most other socialization agents (e.g., parents, schools, churches) in the lives of contemporary U.S. children (Christenson & Roberts, 1998; Comstock & Paik, 1991; as cited in Kaiser Family Foundation Report, 1999, p. 1). This same body of research also tells us that the nature and degree of media influence depends on a wide variety of factors, not the least of which is the different facets of media use.

1 The Kaiser Family Foundation worked with Stanford University Professor Donald F. Roberts, Ph.D., and staff at Harris Interactive, Inc. (formerly Louis Harris and Associates), to design a national study o f the media environment and media habits o f 3,155 U.S. children ages 2 through 18 years. Harris Interactive collected all data, and the results were analyzed by Foundation staff and Professor Roberts.


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Researchers in the field have indicated what children see on television can affect the choices they make in life, including the careers they choose (Gerbner and Linson, 1999). The findings from the Kaiser Family Foundation report (1999) provide substantial evidence for media researchers that have concluded American youth spend more time with media than with any single activity other than sleeping (p. 82) and that heavy users of television adopt a view of reality that corresponds with the description of reality presented in the media (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1993; Gerbner, 2003). According to the Kaiser Foundation Family report (1999,2003, 2005), expressions of concern about children and media increased significantly with the introduction of electronic media (motion pictures, radio). This was especially true after "the introduction of television in the 1950’s” as children were given both “physical and psychological access” to a much wider array of content than ever before available (p. 3). Other findings of the report indicated that the age group of children that includes the pre middle and middle school years resided in homes with high rates of media penetration: 99% had a television, 97% had a VCR, 96% had an audio system, 82% had a video game player, 74% had a cable/satellite TV connection, and 69% had a computer (pp. 67-69). The survey revealed that the highest total of media exposure occurred in the middle school years, a total of eight hours and eight minutes a day. However, African American children were reported as being exposed to 2 more hours of media content per day than White children (p. 79). Most of the difference is accounted for by television exposure, although African American youth also reportedly spent more time with taped television shows, movies, and video games.


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The overall picture based on the report’s three indicators of socioeconomic status (SES) concluded that media exposure increases as household resources decline (p. 79). However, sampling procedures limit generalizations that can be drawn from these studies of children’s media use. An identified need was for studies of media use within various racial/ethnic groups (p. 4). Key findings from a later Kaiser Family Foundation report (2003) documenting young children’s access to and use of electronic and print media in the home have indicated that in this age group (0-6), nine out of ten have watched television (91%) and 89% have watched videos or DVDs. Key findings from an even more recent Kaiser Family Foundation report (2005) again concluded that television remains “by far the dominant medium for young people today,” although more youth are tuning in to cable television each day than to broadcast programming (p. 26). The report observed a different phenomenon that has been missing from the previous Kaiser Foundation Family reports (1999,2003) and that is that more than one third (34%) of the youth are now “time-shifting” their television viewing through digital video recorders (DVRs), and others are going online in conjunction with the television shows they are watching (p. 26). One in four (28%) youth say they “often” (10%) or “sometimes” (18%) go online while watching TV to do something related to the show they’re watching (p. 26). And, 60% of those with computers at home say their sets are located where they can “watch TV while using the computer” (p. 26). In addition, although more than eight in ten (83%) young people have a video game console at home, and a majority (56%) have two or more, about half (49%) have one in their bedroom, and just over half (55%) have a handheld video game player, they


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still spend far less time using them than they spend watching television (p. 36). A surprising fact revealed in the latest Kaiser Family Foundation report was that although the time young people spend using media has remained nearly identical to what was reported in 1999 (6 hours and 21 minutes per day), as new media technologies, content, or activities have become available, instead of giving up old media, they have increasingly become “media multi-taskers, instant messaging while doing homework and watching TV” (p. 37). Sitcoms are the most popular genre among young people today, with more than one third (37%) watching a sitcom every day (p. 26). Educational shows and children’s programs are popular among younger kids, with nearly half of 8- to 10-year olds watching in any given day (47% and 45%, respectively). Other popular genres include “movies, reality shows, and entertainment/variety shows” (p. 26). National Science Foundation Media Use Studies While acknowledging that the public image of science portrayed by the media is mostly inaccurate and derogatory, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has done few studies on how the media contributes to student selection of scientific careers. One study however, Getting the Media Message, was part of a $556,000 NSF pilot study under the direction of Ohio University. The purpose of this study was to determine what media messages middle school (6th - 8th grade) students receive regarding the role of women and minorities in the field of information technology. Seventeen students at the school conducted the survey of 556 students and their media environment, to explain how media influences students, especially females in their career choices. The study team found: > 69 percent of students go to the movies less than once a week;


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> 17 percent never go to the movies; > Most students watch a video at home once a week; > Most students read a magazine at least once a week, while 24 percent never read a magazine; > 54 percent of females use the Internet at home daily while only 38 percent of males do; > 33 percent of the males have never used the Internet at home; > 39 percent of students never check a book out of the public library, because they do not have transportation; > 46 percent of students check a book out of the school library less than once a week, 18 percent never check out a book; > Eight out of 10 students watch television every day; > 90 percent of the middle school students plan to attend college. No conclusions were made in this study about how participants’ media use influenced perceptions of females and minorities regarding information technology careers. The findings, though contributing to the research literature generally, did not provide useful insights about the frequency of use and influence of these media in the case of minority groups. Traditional Media Effects Paradigm A primary goal of the “effects paradigm” has been the scholarly exploration of how media may influence youth into behavior that constricts their ability to mature into socially-responsible, productive citizens. Because some scholars have noted that children and adolescents spend more time watching television than they do engaging in formal


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education (Stroman, 1991), the question has frequently arisen from parents, educators, and administrators about the socializing effects of television on children. According to Bemt, Bemt, and Turner (2003), media researchers have observed that people who are dependent the heaviest on media, especially television, are “most influenced in their views of the world” (p. 1). According to Signorielli (2001), the study of the mass media can be viewed as a three-step process: (a) examining the images people encounter in the media, (b) ascertaining what impact or effects these images may have and, (c) understanding the institutional processes that create these images and ensure their success and/or failure (p. 342). “Although all three steps are interconnected,” Signorielli wrote, “and our understanding of any one necessitates answering questions associated with the other two, without understanding the nature of the images, we really cannot understand the nature of their effects or what institutional forces may be involved in their shaping or their success”(p. 342). Consequently, to ensure that research is driven by information on what people “see” when they watch television and film-related media, and not what we “think they see,” a major research question in mass media research, according to Signorielli, must of necessity ask how are “different thematic elements and kinds of people portrayed in the media” (p. 342). It is this fundamental question that this study seeks to address, as it relates to the understanding of what 5th grade African American youth actually “see” when they view occupational portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology (SET) workers in television and in film-related media, what they “see” when they view minority portrayals


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on television and in film-related media, and how what they “see” affects their interpretation of the world around them. The concept “social reality” is commonly used to describe this phenomenon and, in most instances, social reality effects are understood in terms of the shaping of belief or belief systems (Allen & Hatchett, 1986; Berger & Luckmann, 1967). Although there have been many studies through the years on the perceptions White American youth have of SET portrayals in television and in the movies, none have observed exclusively the perceptions of African American youth of SET portrayals, even though African Americans have been continually underrepresented in SET careers (NSF, 2000). The following section contains a discussion of cultivation analysis, one of the theoretical approaches through which the current study is framed. Cultivation Analysis Cultivation analysis (Gerbner, 1978,1980; Morgan & Signorielli, 1990; Entman & Rojecki, 2001) is a useful theoretical approach through which to examine whether the portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology (SET) practitioners in television and film-related media programs influence young African American viewers to incorporate these images into their belief systems. It is a theoretical framework which has methodological assumptions and procedures that are suitable for assessing how television and film-related media contribute to the African American child’s conception of social reality, his or her beliefs about SET careers and workers, and even his or her attitudes toward mathematics and science courses in school. The term “cultivation” itself is mainly concerned with the “collective context within which, and in response to which, different individual and group selections and


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interpretations of messages take place” (Gerbner 1978, p. 125). Although focused usually on one medium (television), cultivation analysis theorists have argued that television has a major influence on people’s -beliefs and, more specifically, social reality beliefs (Allen & Hatchett, 1986). Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, and Signorielli (as cited in Allen & Hatchett, 1986), proponents of this type of analysis, have asserted that the environment of symbols sustains the most distinctive aspects of human existence. People “learn, share, and act upon meanings derived from their environment” (p. 98). These relationships have been examined with respect to television. The concern with this one medium is based on their notion that television is the primary source of “repetitive, ritualized symbol systems” (p. 98). Gerbner and Gross (1976) asserted such symbol systems cultivate the common consciousness of a large and heterogeneous mass public. One of the reasons more research needs to be conducted using the cultivation framework is because recent research (Mitroff, 2004) has indicated that children actually learn from television. The next section discusses Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory and its close proximity to Gerbner’s cultivation analysis theoretical framework. What Children Learn From Television and How They Learn It. Another key area of study that relates to the cultivation analysis theory involves theories of learning that would shed light on what children are actually learning from extended periods of exposure to television and other film-related media. Asamen (1993) wrote, “a more constructive mindset would be to perceive television as a sociocultural educational medium” (p. 308). Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory emphasized the importance of observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others.


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Bandura (1977) wrote the following: Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action, (p. 22) The most pervasive examples of social learning situations are television commercials, which suggest that using certain products (toothpaste, deodorant), wearing certain clothes, or saying certain phrases, might make one popular and win the admiration of popular people. In the case of how television, film and related media might shape attitudes toward mathematics and science, an example might be programming that consistently shows that it is not popular to be smart. In an episode of My Wife and Kids, for example, (“Making the Grade” April 11,2001), Junior receives an “F” in algebra and forges the letter into an “A.” In another episode of the show, (“Jr. Kyle, Boy Genius” March 27,2002), upon receiving Junior’s SAT score results (a perfect 1600), Junior’s family believe they have a genius in the house and begin treating him respectfully. However, later in the show the results were found to be not Junior’s after all. His true score was only 200! One of the conclusions noted by Bandura (1977) regarding social learning theory is that individuals are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior, if the model is similar to the observer and has admired status and the behavior has functional value. On the other hand, some studies have concluded that to see the world as the televised and film-related media messages portray it is to harbor some misconceptions. In fact, many of the shared


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misconceptions about occupational portrayals, minority portrayals, and other aspects of life are at least partly cultivated through symbolic modeling of stereotypes (Bandura, 1994). Moreover, according to Bandura (1994), the influence of television has more to do with the content that is viewed than the amount of viewing as cultivation analysis theorists contend. Models viewed in television and film-related media content, can be, as Van Evra (2004) reported, “inhibitors or disinhibitors, teachers or tutors, social prompts, or emotion arousers, and most importantly, they can shape conceptions of reality values” (p. 5). However, Van Evra has cited limitations and problems with using only social learning and social cognitive theory to explain the data. Van Evra (2004) wrote the following: All children imitate what they see regardless of context, observed consequences, and prior learning. Moreover, as the relation reported often is based on correlational data, causation cannot be demonstrated effectively. Although viewing violence on television may lead to imitation of that content and increased aggression, for example, it also is possible that aggressive children may choose to watch more violent programs (p. 6). While social learning and social cognitive theory have been used effectively to demonstrate short-term effects, the long-term effects of viewing and the relative influence of other factors that contribute to the appearance of specific behaviors are not as clear (p. 6).

On the other hand, according to the cultivation perspective, the amount of viewing or exposure is a very important variable in television’s impact on thought and behavior


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(p. 6). Cultivation theory assumes that heavy viewers are also “less selective in their viewing, engage in habitual viewing, and experience a good deal of sameness of content” (p. 6). Lighter viewers are most likely to have many other diverse sources of information such as “social interaction, reading, and vocational experience that take up much of their time and displace televiewing time” (p. 6). Having more behavioral models, this group is perhaps less likely to take television content seriously (p. 6). Heavy viewers, therefore, with few other sources of ideas are more likely to report reality perceptions consistent with television portrayals. Again, Van Evra (2004) observed that the cultivation effect does not act on everyone in the same way. She commented, “not only do heavy viewers at one developmental level have a different experience than heavy viewers at another level; those of a different gender, or socioeconomic level, or family background experience television differently” (p. 7). Furthermore, research based on cultivation theory has suggested that children (Byrne, 2000) and adolescents (Byrne, 2000; Signorielli 1990, 1993; Huston & Alvarez, 1990; Wroblewski & Huston, 1987) gain knowledge about the workplace from the images they view on television, especially if they are heavy viewers (Bemt, Bemt, & Turner, 2003). Although cultivation analysis and the construction of social reality differ in the media generally investigated and in their scope, they share several similarities (Allen and Hatchett, 1986). Both are concerned with the role of the media in shaping people’s interpretation of the world around them, and both employ the concept of “social reality” to describe this phenomenon (p. 98). The following section discusses the literature on


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social reality and how it may help explain how participants in this study perceive images about themselves and about SET workers and their professions. The Construction o f Social Reality Originally conceptualized by Berger and Luckmann (1967), the construction of social reality theorizes that man’s (and woman’s) self-production is always and necessarily, a social enterprise. Berger and Luckmann’s social-psychological presuppositions, especially important for analyzing “internalization of social reality,” were greatly influenced by George Herbert Mead and the symbolic-interactionist school of American sociology (p. 17). The major tenet in this treatise is that analyses of objectivation, institutionalization and legitimation are “directly applicable to the problems of the socialization of language, the theory of social actions and institutions, and the sociology of religion” (p. 185). In considering the social effects of television and film-related media on children in this sense, the question of whether they believe television depictions are real should be addressed. Relating to this study, the question is whether African American children are more inclined to perceive television and film-related media portrayals to be socially realistic and are more apt to incorporate such portrayals into their real-life experiences. Adoni and Mane (1984) further expanded the conceptualization of the construction of social reality by defining the distinction between three types of reality: objective, symbolic, and subjective social reality. Objective social reality (the world outside) is that reality that is experienced as the “objective world existing outside the individual and confronting him or her as facts” (p. 99). Learned ostensibly by means of


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“common sense,” (p. 99) as reality par excellence, objective social reality does not need any further verification. Symbolic social reality is defined as “any form of symbolic expression of objective reality, such as art, literature, or media content” (p. 99). Subjective social reality (the pictures in our heads) consists of a “fusing into individual consciousness of the objective world and its symbolic representations” (p. 99). Thus, both objective and symbolic realities serve as an input for the construction of the individual’s own subjective reality (p. 99). The importance of this expanded version of the process of the construction of social reality to this particular study is that it may enhance understanding of how television and film-related media portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology (SET) workers may discourage young African Americans from pursuing careers in science, engineering, and technology (SET) fields and from developing positive attitudes toward math and science courses. Discouragement may occur because, to African American youth, these portrayals may be perceived “along a continuum based on the distance of its elements from the individual’s everyday life experiences” (p. 99). Known as the “close zone of relevance” (p. 99), which consists of those elements and actors with whom the individual has frequent encounters, alternatively, remote zones of relevance involve more “general and abstract social elements that are not accessible to direct experience” (p. 100). The authors maintained that the degree of media influence on an individual’s subjective social reality is “contingent on direct experience with the various social


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phenomena and dependence on the media as sources of information about these phenomena” (p. 100). Potter (1986, cited in Jeffres, 1997) relegated perceived reality through the “magic window dimension” that refers to the degree in which a viewer believes television content is an “unaltered, accurate representation of actual life” (p. 95). Jeffres (1997) observed that children under the age of twelve could critique and discount television content much like adults. The variable of perceived realism is important in any media effects research, because whether or not viewers perceive the media or media content as “real,” the likelihood of media effects, including cultivation, is present in viewers who believe television content “is real rather than those who believe the content to be fictional or stylized” (p. 95). The following section provides a discussion of the perceived realism of television and film-related media images of occupational portrayals vs. the real life images of occupational portrayals.

Perceived Realism o f Media Images versus Real Life Images o f Occupational Portrayals. Wright et al. (1995) found that children tended to form different occupational role schemata for television and real life (fictional versus non-fictional), but that children who watch more television perceive television to be socially realistic and are apt to incorporate television messages into their real-life schemata. In the study, researchers investigated the nurse and police occupations because they represent both male- and female-stereotyped jobs, are frequently shown on television, and are observed by most children in real life.


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The researchers observed significant differences between children’s schemas about television occupations and real life occupations in both open- and closed-ended measures. In most instances, the differences were in the direction predicted on the basis of content analyses and commentaries about how television portrayals differ from the actual characteristics and activities of nurses and police. The researchers concluded children have separate schemata for television and real-life occupations, when they have ample opportunity to observe both the televised and real-life versions of those occupations. Viewing frequency was positively correlated with perceived social realism of police/nurses on television. However, since the Wright et al. (1995) study, Bruner (1998) has suggested that the line has become increasingly blurred between entertainment products earmarked as fiction, such as sitcoms or dramas, or as nonfiction, such as talk shows, reality shows and the news. Moreover, MitrofPs (2004) study further documented the effects of television in terms of its ability to change young viewers’ perceptions of the world. Acknowledging that sometimes their responses focused on changes in what they knew, Allison Robins, former writer on Melrose Place, said “.. .if it’s a medical show, the statistics are unbelievably high about how many people get their medical information from television” (Mitroff, 2004, p. 63). Jeffres (1997) noted that as children grow older, they become more “adept at differentiating television appearances from realities and in constructing complex portraits of television entertainment messages” (p. 188). Citing the process wherein children perceive and make sense of television is not as simple as researchers have originally believed. Jeffres (1997) assertion that children perceive that “about half of all real-life


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families in America are similar to the families in the shows children watch most frequently,” further substantiated the need to examine children’s perceptions of television closely. Jeffres (1997) wrote the following: There is no doubt that television influences the criteria children use to evaluate real life events. To the extent that television depictions don’t jibe with children’s everyday experiences, they are likely to leave an imprint, (p. 188) Based upon the two influential research areas of cultivation analysis and the construction of social reality, a review of other areas of the literature that correlate within the research parameters is discussed in the following sections. A relevant question that seems to surface from consideration of these findings is, To what extent does the quantity and variety of portrayals of SET professions and workers that pre-middle school African American youth are exposed to influence how these professions and workers are perceived within their community? To answer this question from a more in-depth perspective, it is necessary to review a portion of the literature on media and identity and how media affect the identity of the viewer. The Construction o f Youth Identity by the Media. According to Morgan and Huntemann (2001), the quantity and redundancy of mass media images accumulate as part of the overall childhood experience. This accumulated experience contributes to “the cultivation of a child’s values, beliefs, dreams, and expectations, which shape the adult identity a child will carry and modify throughout his or her life (p. 311).


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To make the connection between the content of mass media and its influence on the identity development of children, researchers have moved beyond the media text—the collection of television programs, magazines, music lyrics, etc. to the child audience and asked the question, how do mass media images influence a child’s self concept? Addressing this question leads to greater understanding of the complex relationships between childhood identity development and the mass media. As this relates to this particular study, the questions are, To what extent are television and filmrelated media images integrated into African American children’s lived experiences and How do these experiences shape their understanding of themselves and the world in which they live? Although there are many studies that have examined the relationship between television viewing and the self-concepts and/or self-esteem of African American children (Greenberg, 1972; Tan & Tan, 1979; Graves, 1980, 1982, 1993; Stroman, 1991), none of these studies have been concerned with African American children's viewing of specific occupational roles, such as SET workers, and how such roles affect their self-concept. Self-concept is important not only for African American children, but also for other underrepresented minorities and for children of the dominant culture. Children need to classify and describe observed objects, experiences, and/or information that are part of their own experiences. If African American children are continually exposed to either negative media portrayals of SET practitioners or are not exposed to African Americans in occupational roles of SET workers, their perceptions of themselves as future scientists or engineers may be distorted or missing altogether. As Entman & Rojecki (2001) have suggested, “this is where culture comes in” (p. 49). Thus, not only is the distortion or


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omission of African Americans as SET workers in television and film-related media detrimental to African American’s self-concept, this distortion may also affect how Whites view Blacks. Entman and Rojecki (2001) wrote: We define the mainstream culture as the set o f schemas most widely stored in the public’s minds and the core thematic frames that pervade media messages. Lacking much opportunity for repeated close contact with a wide variety of Blacks, Whites depend heavily on cultural material, especially media images, for cataloging Blacks...As communicating cultural symbols, Blacks are in transition from being (consciously or unconsciously) perceived by most Whites as representing the realm of disorder and perhaps danger, (pp. 49, 51) Furthermore, Entman and Rojecki (2001) contend that Blacks are “prisoners of the widespread acceptance by Whites of what is understood to be the prototypical—the most representative—Black person... a lower class or ‘under’ class individual of little economic attainment” (p. 53). In contrast, the outstanding attainment of Blacks in other dimensions may be seen as “atypical” (p. 53). This might lend credence to the argument that mainstream culture continues to reflect images in the mass media, (again, either consciously or unconsciously) that considers Whites the normal, prototypical human. Entman & Rojecki continue this argument by citing how newsmagazine covers offer illustrations of the dominance of the White image in media. Citing several instances wherein a popular magazine ran topics such as “Too Much Homework,” “Why We Take Risks,” “Taking Care of our Parents,” and “Forever Young,” (p. 53) a White image was used symbolizing the “prototypical American child or adult” (p. 53). When the magazine did feature Blacks, Michael Jordan and Oprah Winfrey, on its cover during the same


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timeframe, they were never used to stand in for the prototypical American. This suggested, according to Entmann and Rojecki (2001) that when editors think about “an American person,” (p. 54) they automatically think “White” (p. 54). However, when trying to show a group of “American persons” (p. 54), they consciously recognize the need to show diversity and include it. If such prototypical thinking is common among Hollywood producers, writers, and television and film-related media programmers, it may also be one of the reasons the role of the African American as SET worker is portrayed minimally in television and film-related media content. This could possibly undermine the African American child’s self-concept. Identification with Heroes, Celebrities, and Role Models in the Media. Fraser and Brown (2002) noted that one of the important consequences of the mass media is the increased opportunity audiences have to “develop relationships with mythic characters” (p. 184). Described by Kittelson (1997, cited in Fraser and Brown, 2002) as people who “express our deepest goals and values” (p. 184), these characters provide meaning to our lived experiences through the “power of imagination” (p. 184). Traditionally based on heroic people, such mythic characters are today derived primarily from celebrities (p. 184). Moreover, the objective of the entertainment education communication strategy, according to Singhal (2004), has been to increase knowledge of a person or social need, influence attitudes, or change overt behavior through entertainment. Assuming, however, that people, including children, will develop stronger identification with positive celebrity


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role models than they will with negative celebrity role models, Fraser and Brown (2004) contended it made sense to employ celebrities in this task because: greater identification with celebrities will result in a greater audience awareness of the social issues, products, and cause associated with that celebrity.. .will produce greater adoption of values and beliefs consistent with those advocated or modeled by the celebrity... [and] will produce greater adoption of behavior consistent with that advocated or modeled by the celebrity, (p. 110) Brown, Steele, and Walsh-Childers (2002) media practice model also was based on the assumption that developing identity is a big factor in the media choices preteens make, interact with, and apply in their lives. In fact, Brown et al. (2002) also contended that teens’ media diets differed dramatically by gender and race in that Blacks and Whites chose dramatically different television diets. In light of the fact that most “tweens” and teens seek heroes, celebrities, and role models that look and talk a lot like them, is it any wonder that Blacks usually favor television programs and movies featuring African American characters and that Whites usually favor television programs and movies featuring White characters? To further shed light on how identity may be influenced by television and filmrelated media, the literature on stereotyping and information processing is discussed in the following section. Stereotyping and Information Processing According to Pieterse (2003), stereotypes are “reconstructed and reasserted precisely when existing hierarchies are being challenged and inequalities are or may be lessening” (p. 114). Pieterse continued this assertion by suggesting that stereotyping is


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not only a matter of domination but also one of humiliation. Groups that are different or “subordinate” (p. 114) are not simply “described, they are debased, degraded” (p. 114). In order to enhance and to “magnify social distance” (p. 114), Pieterse contended that perceptions are thus manipulated. The concept of the stereotype is certainly not new and conceptually has existed since Aristotle’s slavery defense in the fourth century B.C. He understood that to justify slavery he had to teach the Greeks a way of “seeing their slaves that comported with the continuance of slavery” (Lippmann, 1922, p. 64). Lippmann later defined this as the “perfect stereotype” (p. 65), because its hallmark is that it “precedes the use of reason, is a form of perception, imposes a certain character on the data of our senses before the data reach the intelligence.. .There is nothing so obdurate to education or to criticism as the stereotype”(p. 65). Today, social cognition has provided a new conceptual framework for thinking about stereotyping, and generated research on a new set of questions (Hamilton, 1979). Within that framework a stereotype is a “cognitive structure that can influence the way information about groups and group members is processed” (Hamilton, Stroessner, Driscoll, 1994, p. 298). Consequently, in this light, research has focused on issues pertaining to both the nature of that cognitive structure and the mechanisms by which that structure influences the processing of information about groups and group members. Because stereotypes have been shown to influence information processing in a variety of ways, this area of research is important to a study on how African Americans are influenced by television and film-related media portrayals of African American characters generally and SET practitioners specifically. Research from the cognitive


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approach has altered conceptions about how stereotypes are formed, how they are maintained, and, by extension, how they can be altered. According to Hamilton, Stroessner, and Driscoll (1994), the enduring legacy of the social cognition approach is that it has focused our attention on issues of processing rather than content. Taking a socio-cultural approach in the area of how the African American culture’s beliefs and values become internalized relates to more specific studies, such as this one, that explore how threats to the ego influence one’s attention to various pieces of information or the inferences and elaborations made from it (p. 316). The following section examines Claude Steele’s (1992,1997,1998; Perry, Steele & Hilliard, 2003) stereotype threat theory. It provides a practical solution to overcome the threat of being stereotyped according to mass media portrayals. Stereotype Threat and the Looking Glass Self. Claude Steele (1992,1997,1998; Perry, Steele & Hilliard, 2003), the originator of the “stereotype threat” theoretical perspective begins with Mead’s (1934, cited in Perry, Steele & Hilliard, 2003) “looking glass self’ assumption (p. 116). The contention is that a person’s self -image is derived partially from how one is viewed by others, including family, peers, and the broader society. Mead’s theory implied that if those views are negative, people may “internalize them, resulting in lower self-esteem—or self-hatred, as it has been called” (p. 116). This theory, first applied to the experience of African Americans by Gordon Allport (1954, cited in Perry, Steele & Hilliard, 2003) basically concluded Black students internalize negative stereotypes as “performance anxiety and low expectations for achievement, which they then fulfill” (p. 116). This self-fulfilling prophecy has become “commonplace about Black students” (p. 116) according to Steele.


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However, Steele wrote, “Stereotype threat is something different, something external: the situational threat of being negatively stereotyped” (p. 117). The scenario of stereotype threat goes something like this: if one tells White male students who were strong in math that a difficult math test they were about to take was one on which Asians generally did better than Whites, the White males should not have a sense of group inferiority about math, since no societal stereotype alleges such an inferiority (p. 117). Yet, according to Steele, the comment would, nevertheless, put the White male students under a form of stereotype threat: “any faltering on the test could cause them to be seen negatively from the standpoint of the positive stereotype about Asians and math ability.” (p. 117). What happened in this study was that White males taking the test after hearing this comment performed less well than White males taking the test without hearing the comment (p. 117). In most of Steele’s research the most “achievement-oriented” (p. 120) students, who were the most “skilled, motivated, and confident” (p. 120), were the ones who were most affected by stereotype threat. Steele concluded that: (1) different kinds of students may require different pedagogies of improvement; (2) what exposes students to the pressure of stereotype threat is not “weaker academic identity and skills but stronger academic identity and skills” (p. 121); and, (3) the success of Black students may depend less on things considered to drive academic performance such as, expectations and motivation, than on “trust that stereotypes about their group will not have a limiting effect in their school world” (p. 122). Although most of Steele’s research has been targeted toward college students, it would be interesting to see what the results would be if applied to the African American


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preteen and teen population specifically. What Steele’s research suggests is that the degree of racial trust Black students feel in school, rather than the results of standardized achievement tests, may be the key to their success. Literature regarding the perceptions of social reality and media’s influence on African American racial beliefs within the mainstream’s western imagery cultural framework in the United States also may be meaningful to this study and is discussed in the following section. Television and Film-related Media’s Influence on African American Racial Beliefs While the current research’s primary focus is on the public image of science and young African American attitudes and perceptions toward SET practitioners and their scientific disciplines, those variables and media constructs that relate to existing African American racial beliefs are a significant factor in understanding how African American youth internalize portrayals of SET workers on television and in film-related media content and formulate subsequent attitudes and perceptions of math and science courses and careers. Allen and colleagues (Allen & Hatchett, 1986; Allen, Dawson & Brown, 1989; Allen, 1993) provided the background of those influences that have been identified as instrumental in understanding the racial beliefs of African Americans. While many influences have been identified and discussed in the literature, including both mainstream and Black media, it has been recognized that additional factors may be influencing African American racial beliefs. Furthermore, according to Allen (1993), “heuristic decisions and the access and process of information are made possible by belief systems” (p. 160).


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In their conceptualization of belief systems (Allen et al., 1989; Allen, 1993), the researchers maintained that belief systems are “cognitive structures that tend to facilitate and constrain the work of schemata (specifically, the processing, storing, and organizing of information acquired from the social environment)” (p. 160). Allen’s group also contended that cognitive schemata actively stores and processes information and produces expectations about future events and actions (Conover & Feldman, 1980, cited in Allen 1993). In understanding the influence of television and film-related media portrayals of SET workers on African American youth it also may be helpful to understand Blackoriented media’s influence on African American youth. Black-Oriented Media Influence on African American Youth. Black-oriented media, those media whose content depicts primarily the life of African Americans and are for the most part owned and produced largely by African Americans, play a significant role in determining the content of African American racial beliefs. This is because Black-oriented media are seen as a “filter of African Americans’ information sources pertaining to the general status of African Americans both as an autonomous group and in relation to the dominant society” (p. 424). Two significant issues relevant to the current research are why and how the Black media, as sources of communication and potential transmitters of information about the Black culture, either reinforce or crystallize mental images of social reality. Although Allen and Bielby (1979, cited in Allen, 1993) found that racial identification was not correlated with reading such established Black print media as Ebony, they did find that it was positively correlated with exposure to such nontraditional


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Black print media as Black Scholar. In a later study, in which the type of Black print medium was not categorized, Allen and Hatchett (1986) reported that exposure to Black media was “positively correlated with positive perceptions of the group” (Allen et al., 1989, p. 426, cited in Allen and Hatchett, 1986). Although these findings are relative to Black-oriented print media, they may be indicative of how Black-oriented media in general may play an important role in the reinforcing of positive images of the group. However, exposure to television, as compared to other mass media, may be more important in the communication and transmission of cultural orientations, because television is said to cultivate the dominant culture (Gerbner, Morgan, and Signorielli, 1980). The treatment of Blacks in television and film-related media produced largely by African Americans have been equally stereotypical and although such roles representing Blacks have not been subordinate roles relative to whites (Pierce 1980), in contrast, during the 1990s primetime season, African American creators and producers, such as Robert Townsend, Shawn and Marlon Wayans and Suzanne de Passe with programs on Fox, WB or UPN networks, at times deferred to creating sitcom formats with “aracial themes” (Zook, 2003, p. 592). Zook (2003) wrote the following: It is important to understand then, that while there were some twenty-one shows with black lead characters in 1997 (as compared to eight in 1990), these new series carefully avoided in-group dialogue around issues of color, class, gender, and sexuality. Network executives, it seems, now realized that they could have black-looking shows without the hassle of black complexity, (p. 592)


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Other shows with Black producer/creators such as Living Single, featured the “popular narrative of the desperate black woman; another was the radical womanism inspired by Queen Latifah” (Zook, 2003, p. 130). Perry (2003) argued that the trend of “objectifying and subjugating black women in hip-hop music videos” (p. 136), usually created by Black producers and directors and viewed on Black-oriented media networks, had an equally “potentially damaging social impact” (p. 136). Perry (2003) wrote the following: It seemed to happen suddenly. Every time you turned on BET or MTV there was a disturbing music video. Black men rapped surrounded by dozens of black and Latina women dressed in swimsuits, or scantily clad in some other fashion. Video after video was the same, each one more objectifying than the next. Some were in strip clubs, some at the pool, beach, hotel rooms, but the recurrent theme was dozens of half-naked women, (p. 137). Regarding programming on Black-oriented media, Zook (2003) summed up the status of black-oriented media in primetime programming as follows: While our collective yearning for the mythical American dream is apparent in virtually every episode of every Black-produced show, Black Americans are stepping into a new century largely removed from the benefits of a global capitalist economy. Our challenge remains one of critical engagement. Because visual media colonize our imaginations, we must continue to strive for vigilant and sophisticated readings of television culture, (p. 593) It is important to note, however, that the number of Blacks to appear in primetime television has increased and stereotypical portrayals have decreased somewhat, although


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researchers (Dates & Barlow, 1990; Bogle, 1991; 2001) have continued to document the less-than-favorable images presented of Blacks as a group within the past five decades. Still, media portrayals of Blacks as SET workers is an important issue to consider. Pierce (1980, cited in Allen and Hatchett, 1986) maintained that television provides “trace contaminants” that to the Black viewer may be debilitating or disabling (p. 101). Using a medical analogy, trace contaminants were defined as “elements that abound in microscopic quantity and ordinarily are without demonstrable influence on the organism” (p. 101). When such an element is repeated in the environment over a period of time, there is a serious “cumulative reaction” (p. 101). Pierce maintained that despite more sensitivity to negative racial stereotypes and the increased number of Blacks on television, a “good role” (p. 101) such as a Black as a Corporate Executive, should not be confused by how the Black is presented in the role. The role may demonstrably suggest status and dignity, but, on subtle levels, may operate as a social trace contaminant for a Black viewer (p. 101). To further understand the extent of media content African American youth have been exposed to, a review of the literature on African American portrayals in mainstream television and film-related media has been provided in the following section. African American Portrayals in Television and Film-related Media Content Scholars have studied how television and film portrayals of diverse people-groups in our society have affected the attitude development of American youth for over seven decades (Charters, 1933; Maccoby, 1951, 1954; Schramm & Parker, 1961; Lyle, & Hoffman, 1972; Gom, Goldberg, & Kanungo, 1976; Newcomb & Collins, 1979; Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1980; Hall, 1981; Berry, 1982; Graves, S.B. 1980,1982,


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1993; Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1985; Berry, 1988; Comstock, 1993; Comstock & Scharrer, 1999,2001; Entman & Rojecki, 2001). Historically, since the inception of motion pictures in America in 1896, only three screen roles (two since 1995) have featured African American scientists or engineers the Nutty Professor I co-starred Jada Pinkett as a love-struck chemistry professor in love with Eddie Murphys’ Nutty Professor character, while Nutty Professor II co-starred Janet Jackson as a cutting-edge genetic engineer involved with the latest DNA research. Nichelle Nichols co-starred as Communications Officer of the Starship Enterprise in the long-playing 1966 Star Trek television series. Eddie Murphy portrayed a doctor who talks to animals in the movie, Dr. Dolittle, and in Nutty Professors landII, he was depicted as a chemistry professor who invents a revolutionary fat gene formula. A brief content analysis of occupational portrayals of African American actors and actresses in films garnering an Academy Award nomination or being awarded an Oscar between 1939 and 2002 revealed 4 maids (Hattie McDaniel in Gone With The Wind, Ethel Waters in Pinky, Juanita Moore in Imitation o f Life, and Alfre Woodard in Cross Creek)', 5 singer/performers (Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones, Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues, Laurence Fishbume and Angela Bassett in What’s Love Got to Do With IP. and Jamie Fox in Ray); 4 prisoners (Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones, Denzel Washington [reformed prisoner] in Malcolm X, Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption, and Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile); 3 soldiers (Lou Gossett in An Officer and a Gentleman, Adolph Caesar in A Soldier's Story, Denzel Washington [former runaway slave-tumed-soldier] in Glory; 2 sharecroppers (Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield in Sounder); 3 boxers (James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope, Denzel


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Washington in Hurricane, and Morgan Freeman in Million Dollar Baby)-, a piano player (Howard Rollins in Ragtime)', a mother on welfare (Diahann Carroll in Claudine)', a mistress (Margaret Avery in The Color Purple)', a psychic (Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost)', a handyman (Sidney Poitier in Lillies o f the Field)', a chauffeur (Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy)', a football player (Cuba Gooding in Jerry McGuire)', a pimp (Morgan Freeman in Street Smart); a hitman (Samuel Jackson in Pulp Fiction); an activist (Denzel Washington in Cry Freedom); two non-specific female roles (Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple); a rogue police officer (Denzel Washington in Training Day); a waitress married to a death-row inmate (Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball); a prison warden, (Queen Latifah in Chicago); and, a hotel manager and his wife, (Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo in Hotel Rwanda)? Many scholars have concluded that African American youth have been influenced and cultivated by media images which have been, for the most part, overwhelmingly negative or stereotypical (Bogle, 1991, 2001; Gerbner, 1987, 1995, Guerrero, 1993; hooks, 1996; Holtzman, 2000; Steele, 1992,1997,2003). It also has been widely recognized, as stated previously, that children that have grown up in a Black community in the United States need a feeling of security and a sense that they are loved and accepted. Yet from television, magazines, films, videos, the advertising media and picture books, the most successful and powerful images these children have observed frequently in the media have been images of White persons. Again, there seems to be a pressing need to explain how these images affect and have affected the attitudes and perceptions of these children toward various professional fields and roles in them. The current study

2 This list was compiled by the author by reviewing all African American Academy Award nominees and/or winners from 1939 -2005).


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of African American children's perceptions of SET fields, practitioners, and math and science coursework is an effort to help fill this need for research and further understanding. Occupational portrayals of African Americans on television have changed somewhat throughout the decades, in part reflecting the changing racial climate and culture of the times. By 1998 the top ten TV programs watched by Black households were strikingly different than those viewed by White households. African Americans tended to watch programs with predominantly Black casts and Whites watched programs with predominantly White casts. A report from Initiative Media (2003, cited in Jet 2003) indicated Blacks passed Whites in overall television viewing over the past 10 years with Blacks averaging 76.8 hours a week compared to 23.7 hours per week for White viewers. However, both groups were watching more of the same shows. Findings from the report also indicated African Americans were interested in those shows that were “more deeply centered on African American and multiethnic characters” (p. 6). A significant increase was reported in the number of multiethnic ensemble series, with 51 airing on the networks during the 2003 network season. This represented a 292% increase since 1995, when there were only 13 shows in this category. Of the top ten shows viewed among Black households, only one contained images of scientists. This was CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on the CBS television network. The series spawned a number of spin-offs containing Black scientists as characters. Having presented the literature on the problems of the reported achievement gap between White Americans and Black Americans in mathematics and science, the problem of the lack of African American participation in the science and engineering workforce,


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and a review of how African Americans have historically been and are represented in television and film-related media to date, the literature on the public image of science will be discussed in the following section. This section also further discusses the National Science Foundation’s contention that the poor depictions of the scientist and engineer in media portrayals coupled with the lack of participation of SET underrepresented minority workers in scientific fields are some of the reasons for the low participation of underrepresented minorities, particularly African Americans, in the SET workforce. The Public Image o f Science The National Science Foundation’s (NSF, 2004) recent Science and Engineering Indicators asserted most adults discover the latest science and technology developments from watching television. The print media rank a distant second. The Internet, although not the main source of news for most, has become the main place to get information about science and technology subjects (p. 7-5). The National Institute of Standards and Technology acknowledged that “TV weathercasters are often the most visible representatives of science in U.S. households” (NSF, 2004, p. 7-8). According to Apsell (2002), the drive for higher ratings is leading television networks to devote more airtime to “monsters of the deep, alien abductions, angels and ghosts, all of which pass for science in the television industry today” (p. 7-8). However, the stereotypical images of the scientific endeavor and its practitioners began long ago. Beginning in 1957, distinguished anthropologist Dr. Margaret Mead (1957), then associate curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, and Dr. Rhoda Metraux (1957), a research fellow at Cornell Medical College, were commissioned by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) —


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a national organization of over 50,000 scientists—and the National Science Foundation (NSF), to conduct a study on what high-school students actually thought about science and scientists, based upon what they had heard on radio, seen on television, and read in the print media of their time. The study asked students at more than 120 schools in the United States to write in their own words a statement that reflected these thoughts. From nearly 35,000 students who participated in the pilot study, three basic images of the scientist emerged: (1) the shared image,3 (2) the positive image,4 and (3) the negative image.5 Based on these

3 The shared image indicated the scientist as “ a man who wears a white coat and works in a laboratory. He is elderly or middle-aged and wears glasses. He is small, sometimes small and stout, or tall and thin. He may be bald, may wear a beard, may be unshaven and unkempt. He may be stooped. He is surrounded by equipment; test tubes, Bunsen burners, flasks and bottles, a jungle gym o f blown glass tubes and machines with dials. The sparkling white laboratory is full o f sounds: the bubbling o f liquids in test tubes and flasks, the squeaks and squeals o f laboratory animals, the muttering voice o f the scientist. He spends his days doing experiments pouring chemicals from one test tube to another. He peers raptly through microscopes, scans the heavens through a telescope [or a microscope], and experiments with plants and animals, cutting them apart, injecting serum into animals. He writes neatly in black notebooks” (p. 387). 4 The positive image indicated the scientist was “a very intelligent man—a genius. He has years of expensive training in school, college, and beyond wherein he studied very hard. He is seriously interested in his work. He is careful, patient, devoted, courageous, open minded. He knows his subject and recording his experiments carefully, he does not jump to conclusions. He stands up for his ideas even when attacked. He works long hours in the laboratory and is prepared to work for years without getting results. He wants to know the answer. One day he may straighten up and shout: ‘I’ve found it. I’ve found it!’ He is a dedicated man who works not for money or fame or self-glory, but—like Madam Curie, Einstein, Oppenheimer, Salk—for the benefit o f mankind and the welfare o f his country. Through his work people will be healthier and live longer and will have new and better products to make life easier and pleasanter at home. Our country will be protected from enemies abroad. He will soon make possible travel to outer space. The scientist is a truly wonderful man. Where would we be without him? The world rests on his shoulders” (p. 387). 5 The negative image indicated the scientist “spent his days indoors, silting in a laboratory, pouring things from one test tube into another. His work is uninteresting, dull, monotonous, tedious, time consuming, and though he works for years, he may see no results or may fail. He is likely to receive neither adequate recompense nor recognition. He may live in a coldwater flat; his laboratory may be dingy. If he works by himself he has heavy expenses. If he works for a big company, he has to do as he is told, and his discoveries must be turned over to the company and may not be used; he is just a cog in a machine. If he works for the government, he has to keep dangerous secrets; he is endangered by what he does and by constant surveillance and by continual investigations. His work may be dangerous. Chemicals may explode. He may be hurt by radiation, or may die. If he does medical research, he may bring home disease, or may use himself as a guinea pig, or may even accidentally kill someone. He may not believe in God or may lose his religion. His belief that man is descended from animals is disgusting. He has no other interests and neglects his body for his mind. He neglects his family, bores his wife, his children and their friends— for he has no friends o f his own or knows only other scientists—with incessant talk that no one can understand. He is always reading a book. He brings work home and also bugs and creepy things. He is


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findings, it was concluded that these basic images were apt “to invoke a negative attitude as far as personal career choice is concerned” (p. 387) in the minds of pre-K, elementary, and high school students. Such views have been somewhat supported by the results of other researchers who, having been influenced by Mead and Metraux’s (1957) landmark work, have attempted by means of a “Draw-a-Scientist” test, to uncover the perceptions of the scientist held by young school children (Chambers, 1983). In Chambers’ study (1983) almost none of the drawings by pre-2nd grade students included “standard indicators”— depictions of physical characteristics associated with negative stereotypes. However, by the second grade the stereotype had begun to take root, as the older children included more and more of the negative indicators (Chambers, 1983). Haynes (1989) concluded that children in primary school were influenced far less by knowledge about actual scientists than they were by images presented to them by television, films, and books (p. 9). Studies have also indicated that stereotypical images held by undergraduate and graduate students do not differ significantly from those held by younger students, even though older students have encountered real-life scientists in college (Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology, 2000; Barman, 1999,1997; Rahm & Charbonneau, 1997; Fort & Varney, 1989). Additionally, all the research on this topic describes the virtual absence of females, members of racial/ethnic minority groups and persons with disabilities in the students’ drawings of scientists, regardless of the grade level. In response to speculation

always running off to his laboratory. A scientist should not marry. No one wants to be such a scientist or to marry him”(p. 387).


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that the students failed to depict diverse scientists because of the small number of female and minorities in scientific professions, researchers highlighted the absence of Asian scientists in the drawings, despite Asians’ overrepresentation in many SET professions (Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology, 2000). Mead and Metreaux’s work led later researchers to examine elements of students’ perceptions which could be classified as stereotypical. Responding to Mead and Metraux’s (1957) study, Chambers (1983) used the single prompt, “draw a scientist” method in a study of 4,807 children in kindergarten through 5th grade. Using the research of the Draw-a-Man and Draw-a-Person tests (Goodenough, 1926; Harris, 1963; Goodenow, 1977), drawings were analyzed for indicators of the image children held of a scientist. Major indicator types emerged: e.g., lab coat, eyeglasses, and facial growth of hair, and from these indicators, Chambers (1983) revealed those views of scientists varied by age and grade level, and that children held stereotypical views of scientists. Western literature and popular entertainment media have often featured the scientist-engineer people-group in the role of the troublemaker (Haynes, 1989). This group is second only to psychotics as the primary source of trouble in horror films. In fact, this group accounts for a larger percentage of horror movie antagonists than zombies, werewolves, and mummies combined (Tudor, 1989). According to the National Science Foundation (NSF 2000), the public image of the scientist has changed little since Mead and Metraux’s (1957) seminal report. As stated previously, the NSF(2000) has argued that the public image of practitioners in SET fields is often both ‘inaccurate and derogatory’ and that workers in these fields are portrayed in


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television and film as “unattractive, reclusive, socially inept White men or foreigners working in dull, unglamorous careers” (p. 7-1). In asserting the consequences of failing to provide young children with more positive public images of SET workers through media content, the NSF (2000) concluded: Children are strongly influenced by the images they see around them at home, at school, and in popular culture. Television has a tremendous influence on children’s attitudes and behaviors, and what they see on television can affect the choices they make in life, including the careers they choose. If they harbor negative stereotypes of scientists and engineers as nerdy and weird looking, then they could reject science and engineering as potential careers, (p. 7-1) Therefore, the report acknowledged that media scholars should consider children’s relationship to television and other emerging technologies in order to create contexts wherein one can better understand the roles media play in the lives of American youth. The following section deals with the varying levels of what pre-middle school students actually know about the subject matter of science as a whole. In order for a study of the perceptions of media portrayals of SET workers on “tween” African American students to be effective, one must first understand how students perceive science at differing developmental levels. Pre-Middle School Student’s Epistemologies o f Science For the past 20 years or so, the majority of students have been taught science and mathematics at the elementary and middle school level from a traditional “I-teach...youleam method”. As the TIMSS (1999; 2004) reports have uncovered, America’s domestic


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affluence and international power, both based on the scientific and technological preeminence of America, has been weakening in relation to other countries, especially Japan (AAAS, 1990). The nation has finally become aware that there is a “crisis in American education” (p. 210) due to the excessive mass media coverage of the TIMSS (1999, 2004) reports that have highlighted trends in U.S. public education, such as low test scores, a demoralized and weakening teaching staff in many schools and low learning expectations compared to other technologically advanced nations. After recently proclaiming at the first-ever National Summit on High Schools in Washington, DC, February 26, 2005, that “high school is obsolete” (p. 1), Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates (Murray, 2005) stated: Our high schools were designed fifty years ago to meet the needs of another age. Until we design them to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep limiting—even ruining—the lives of millions of Americans every year. Today, only one-third of our students graduate from high school ready for college, work, and citizenship. The other two-thirds, most of them low-income and minority students, are tracked into courses that won’t ever get them ready for college or prepare them for a family-wage job—no matter how well the students learn or the teachers teach, (p. 35) An increased level of developmental courses in mathematics and science at regional 2-year and 4-year educational institutions suggests an overhaul of the traditional methods of teaching math and science in school. According to Smith, Maclin, Houghton, and Hennessey (2000), middle school students have a limited “knowledge unproblematic” epistemology of science (i.e., scientists steadily amass more facts about


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the world by doing experiments) with no appreciation of the role played by scientists’ ideas in guiding inquiry. An important question in this study is to what extent pre-middle school students are ready to restructure their epistemological views to focus on more “constructivist” issues: the “conjectural, explanatory, testable, and revisable nature of theories” (p. 349). One might expect that many African American children who participate in this study would have limited epistemological views regarding their conceptions of science. This would be consistent with Carey and Smith’s (1993, cited in Smith, Maclin, Houghton, & Hennessey, 2000) knowledge unproblematic epistemology, an epistemology wherein knowledge is regarded as true and certain. At this Level 1 of scientific endeavor, scientific knowledge is assumed to consist of a collection of true beliefs about concrete procedures (e.g., how to do something correctly) or basic facts (e.g., what happens) (Smith, Maclin, Houghton & Hennessey, p.356). “Students at this level,” Smith, et al. wrote, “make no clear distinction between scientists’ ideas and activities or between their ideas and experimental results” (p. 356). At Level 2, scientific knowledge is assumed to consist of a collection of tested ideas. The two new notions that emerge at this level are notions of explanations and hypothesis testing (p. 356). Students at this level view scientists as concerned with understanding how things work or why things happen. They also view scientists as “doing experiments to test their ideas to see if they are right and as abandoning or revising their ideas when they find out they are wrong” (p. 357). At Level 3, scientific knowledge is believed to consist of well-tested theories about the world, which are useful in explaining events and predicting the outcomes of


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new events. Students at this level make an explicit distinction between the scientist’s guiding theories and more specific hypothesis. It might be assumed that young African American children who would participate in this particular study typically would not be at this Level 3 of science proficiency. The following section provides an overview of the research conducted during the past three decades on occupational portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology (SET) workers in television and film-related media. Occupational Portrayals o f SET Workers in Television and Film-related Media Content DeFleur and DeFleur (1967) conducted some of the earliest exploratory studies dealing with the contribution of television as a learning source for children’s occupational knowledge. The findings from these early studies suggested that television provides children with much “superficial and misleading information about the labor force of their society. From this stereotyped beliefs about the world of work are acquired” (p. 789). In another study, DeFleur (1964) sought to describe the way in which the world of work appears on television through the portrayal of occupational roles within programs presented as entertainment (p. 60). A content analysis of 456 occupational portrayals on television was conducted according to certain criteria. Of these, 20 were of such unlikely characters that they were discarded from the analysis. (These were from complex plot situations where a character was posing as a legitimate member of an occupation for illegal or other purposes and was clearly not a bona fide member of the occupational group.) It was possible to classify the remaining 436 portrayals into recognizable, common occupational characters. The most frequent form of work turned out to be


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occupations associated with the enforcement or administration of the law, with nearly a third of the televised labor force involved. Conspicuous by its absence was the scientist category. Although various practitioners and technicians were portrayed in science-related roles, no individuals were identifiable as scientists in the strict sense of the word: as persons whose major work consists of the investigation of the natural or social world for the purpose of accumulating verified generalizations (p. 63). According to Haynes (1989), the seven major stereotypes that have recurred with varying frequency throughout the history of Western literature, and more recently in television and films, regarding the scientist have been (1) the evil alchemist; (2) the stupid virtuoso; (3) the unfeeling researcher; (4) the heroic adventurer; (5) the utopian or World savior; (6) the reckless or evil destroyer; and (7) the helpless discoverer unable to control his discovery (p. 9). Haynes (1989) wrote the following: They [perceptions] can be traced back to the hostile European attitudes toward the alchemists, whose closely guarded learning derived from the Arab world and was therefore regarded by the medieval church as distinctly dangerous and likely to confirm the Genesis story of the serpent and the apple, (p. 9). Haynes noted the Faustian stereotype of the enchanter, “versed in the black arts and most probably in league with the devil,” (p. 9) gave way to a series of equally unattractive types-“megalomaniacs bent on world destruction; absent-minded professors shuffling in slippers and odd socks while disasters befall their beautiful daughters in the next room; inhuman researchers thinking only in facts and numbers and unable to


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communicate on any other level,” (p. 9) had been the prevalent image of those within scientific disciplines in television and film-related media. Over 30 years ago, communication scholars Larry Gross, George Gerbner, and Nancy Signorielli (1987), conducted a detailed analysis of a 10-year sample of network primetime dramatic programs in which science, technology, and medicine were major themes under a grant from the National Science Foundation. A sample week from each season, stored in the Cultural Indicators archive, revealed 174 programs in which science, technology, or medicine were major themes, 410 programs in which they were minor themes, and 252 programs with no such themes (p. 111). The findings indicated television doctors were among the most positively portrayed characters appearing on prime time while scientists on the whole were presented positively but exhibited also a greater share of ambivalent and troublesome portrayals (p. 111). The study concluded that scientists had the highest “victimization rate” of all occupational groups on prime time television, including the army, police, and private investigators. Gerbner et al., (1987) explored depictions of the role of scientists in U.S. prime time network programs broadcast between 1973 and 1983 under a grant awarded by the National Science Foundation. Gerbner et al., (1987) wrote: Scientists, while on the whole positively presented, have a greater share of ambivalent and troublesome portrayals [than do physicians and other groups].They are a bit older and ‘stranger’ than other professionals


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and are more likely to be foreigners. For every villainous scientist in a major role, there are five who are virtuous. But for every ‘bad’ doctor, there are 19 ‘good’; for every ‘bad’ law enforcer, there are 40 ‘good’ (p. 111). Additionally, Gerbner (1987) observed that the mass media appealed to the popular market for science he referred to as “a mixture of great expectations, fears, utilitarian interests, curiosities, ancient prejudices, and superstitions” (p. 110). Other researchers in the field have also indicated that television has a tremendous influence on children’s attitudes and behaviors, and what they see on television can and does affect the choices they make in life, including the careers they choose (Gerbner and Linson, 1999). According to Gerbner and Linson’s (1999) study of 1,500 television viewers, the more that people watch television, the more they think scientists are odd and peculiar. According to Sheffield (1997), if children harbor negative stereotypes of scientists and engineers as nerdy and weird-looking, they could reject science and engineering as potential careers (p. 377). Sheffield (1997) wrote: Ask any teenager, or even any preteen, what she or he thinks that students gifted in mathematics and science look like, and it is likely that the answer will include an image that looks like the ‘nerdy’ scientist from Back to the Future: male, with glasses, a pocket protector, and a very strange hairdo.. .It is nearly impossible to encourage students to do well in mathematics and science when they are faced with such ridiculous stereotypes everywhere they turn.. .We need more shows like Apollo 13, where scientists are shown as dedicated, intelligent professionals who lead exciting, fulfilling lives, (pp. 377-378)


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Few characters on prime time television shows have been scientists. According to the most recent study, the percentage of scientists was typically less than 2 percent in the mid-1990s (Gerbner & Linson, 1999). In 1994,2.3 percent of the characters on nighttime TV shows were scientists. Comparable figures for 1995,1996,1997, and 1998 were 1.6, 1.9,1.8, and 1.0 percent, respectively. 6 The appearance of women and minorities as scientists has been even rarer. During the period of Gerbner and Linson’s (1999) study, White men constituted 41 percent of the U. S. population, played 53 percent of all TV roles, and played 75 percent of the scientists. The corresponding statistics for White women were 42, 31, and 13 percent, respectively. Minorities were similarly underrepresented in the science profession on TV. However, the reverse was true for foreign nationals—only 3 percent of all characters on prime time shows were foreign nationals, but 9 percent of the scientists were members of this group. Although a review of the literature of the past 50 years on the public image of science and scientists has revealed numerous portrayals in television and in film-related media of SET workers that have undoubtedly helped shape many children’s perceptions of SET fields and their practitioners, the same stereotypes seem to exist. Although they are somewhat modernized, they still quite frequently tend to portray the SET worker as mad, frenzied, or in some other less than positive way. Still, few of these portrayals have been of African American SET workers. The lack of positive images of SET professionals, particularly in prime time television and in 6 The Science and Indicators report noted that the 2 percent statistic for scientists in prime time probably does not differ that much from their total representation in the U.S. workforce. However, this issue can be looked at from the opposite perspective, that is, that members o f other professions (e.g. doctors and lawyers) are probably overrepresented in prime time, which is not the case with respect to scientists.


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film-related media, coupled with an absence of significant African American screen characters in the role of scientists and engineers might unwittingly lead both adults and children viewers to believe African American scientists and engineers are virtually non existent in society as well. Animated Portrayals o f SET Workers in Television. According to Mone (2005), shows like Dexter’s Laboratory and Jimmy Neutron are “turning the electronic babysitter into a science cheerleader” (p. 42). Intrigued by the fact that (1) The Adventures o f Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius features a 10-year-old boy who builds satellites out of toasters; (2) when children aren’t wearing lab coats, they have scientist parents, such as “Mrs. Wakeman, the wild-eyed mother of Jenny the android on My Life as a Teenage Robot, or Professor Utonium, who uses his science know-how to help his tiny crime-fighting daughters save the day on The Powerpuff Girls” (p. 44); Mone asked the questions, “could television be boosting kids’ interest in science? Could cartoons be doing.. .good?” (p. 44). After attempting a “toon watching binge” (p. 44) on a Saturday, Mone discovered the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon were teeming with “child scientists, miniature Edisons who run around exclaiming “Holy Heisenberg!” (p. 44) and “Einstein’s Ghost!” (p. 44). The hero of Dexter’s Laboratory “cobbles together reactors and asteroid-blasting robots...in his downtime he reads books like Quantum Science for fun” (p. 44). However, Mone observed, “pseudoscience prevails in Danny Phantom, a show about a kid who accidentally turns himself into a ghost in his parents’ lab” (p. 44). Finally, he concluded that the cartoons make science “familiar and exciting,” although science education actually happened in the classroom. However, “kids must be


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interested first, which is where Jimmy, Dexter and even the middle-aged Professor of The Powerpuff Girls succeed” (p. 44). However, relegating the image of the SET practitioner to all kinds and types of disembodied beings who are race neutral and sometimes non-gender specific somewhat supports Peters’ (1999) observation that: .. .the rise of the concept of ‘communication’ is a symptom of the disembodiment of interaction. The intellectual history of this notion reveals a long struggle to reorient to a world in which the human is externalized into media forms. Modem media have altered forever the meaning of anthropomorphism.. .Communication places us in affinity with all kinds of monstrous others—and selves, (p. 228) A review of the literature that supports the problem of the public image of science has also revealed the deficiencies existing in the literature that could further highlight the issues inherent in the public image of science. In the following section these deficiencies are discussed. Deficiencies in the Literature A number of past studies have directly focused on media portrayals of SET workers. These studies have demonstrated both the desirable and undesirable influence of such portrayals on child viewers’ behavior, beliefs, and cognitions, (Mead & Metraux, 1957; Chambers, D.W., 1983; Fort, D.C. & Varney, H.L., 1989; Huston et al., 1992; Potts, R., & Martinez, I., 1994; Rahm & Charbonneau, 1997; Barman, C., 1997, 1999). Absent from the literature, however, are studies that have examined the influence of television and film portrayals of SET workers on members of underrepresented


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minorities. In addition, African American youth have not been the focal point of previous research in this respect. Research and literature regarding African Americans in television and film roles have included studies dealing with their participation in: early network television (Lipsitz, 2003); sitcom portrayals (Coleman, 2000); identities and images in hip hop videos (Perry, 2003); New York cop series (Hall, 1981); roles that dehumanize Black masculinity (Dines, 1998); and portrayals of Black women in roles with nontraditional representations of femininity, sexuality, and power (Zook, 1999). While most literature regarding occupational portrayals in the media have not explored the portrayals of SET workers or fields and corresponding attitudes towards science and math courses and careers, a body of studies that could be labeled Draw-aScientist Test (DAST) literature does exist. Most of this literature, beginning with Mead and Metraux’ (1957) study has involved middle and high school student images of scientists and has continued through the nineties (Symington & Spurring, 1990; Finson & Beaver, 1994; Rahm & Charbonneau, 1997; Barman, 1997; 1999). In Barman’s (1999) comparison of the views of high school students with those of grades K-8 students in a large Midwestern city, the high school students in the investigation tended to view scientists as White males. Barman (1999) wrote the following: This finding should be a concern for all science teachers. If we want all of our students to value science and to select science-related careers, we must help them change their perceptions that career opportunities in science are limited to only a certain segment of the population, (p. 19)


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Thus, as previously suggested, the areas of study discussed above have been deficient of studies that link television and film-related media portrayals of SET practitioners and affinity to math and science coursework and career aspirations in SET fields, especially as this relates to African American children. Assumptions o f the Study Based upon a careful review of the literature of the role of television and filmrelated media in culture, children and media use, the traditional media effects paradigm including the cultivation analysis and construction of social reality theoretical perspectives, the role of the media in shaping youth identity, stereotyping and information processing, including stereotype threat literature, television and film-related media’s influence on African American racial beliefs, African American portrayals in television and film-related media content and the public image of science, the following assumptions underlying the current study have been made. According to Bohm (1996), our assumptions affect the way we see things, the way we experience them, and consequently, the things that we want to do (p. 69). In other words, we look “through our assumptions,” which function as a kind of observer (p. 69). Some underlying assumptions of the proposed study are that: 1. People use mental shortcuts (such as stereotypes) to interpret communication, as mediated communication influences development and use of the shortcuts (Entman & Rojecki, 2001). 2. Television and film-related media have been created for the production, reproduction, and transformation of ideologies (Hall 2003). [They] produce “representations of the social world, images, descriptions, explanations and


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frames for understanding how the world is and why it works as it is said and shown to work.. .the media construct for us a definition of what race is, what meaning the imagery of race carries, and what the ‘problem’ of race is understood to be” (p. 90). 3. Viewers embrace the version of the social world cultivated by television and film-related media and incorporate it into their view of social reality. 4. Cultivation analysis (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1980; Signorielli & Morgan, 1990) is one of a number of theories concerned with the construction of social reality. However, because most studies have focused on White Americans, few have revealed how African American youth as a sub group have been and are cultivated by television and film-related media. Ever since Blumer (1969) stated that everyone creates his or her own meaning from media, it has become increasingly evident that literacy, within a mediated context, is the ability to not only “read” the subject matter contained therein, but analyze it so that one knows exactly who’s sending out messages, why, and what effects these messages may have on a particular audience. To ignore the messages and images of scientists and engineers that American youth are exposed to on television and film-related media content, and to ignore opportunities to use the media to promote the understanding that anyone can participate in careers within the science and engineering workforce could be considered a great disservice to the educational system in America.


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Summary In sum, this review of literature tends to support the notion that children and adolescents gain knowledge about the workplace from the stereotyped images they view on television and film-related media. Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling, particularly if the model is similar to the observer and has admired status and the behavior has functional value. Therefore, many of the shared misconceptions about occupational portrayals, minority portrayals, and other aspects of life are at least, according to the literature, partly cultivated through symbolic modeling of stereotypes. It is this assumption that is probably one of the reasons the Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Engineering, and Technology (2000) concluded the following: The public image of scientists, engineers, and technology workers is often both inaccurate and derogatory. It also has been contended that African Americans and other underrepresented minorities are not adequately portrayed by the media as participating in science, engineering, and technology careers. Existing literature and previous research related to these contentions indicate that further study of this issue is warranted to gain a more in-depth understanding of the problem and ways it may be alleviated, (p. 14) In Chapter 3, a discussion of the methods and procedures that were used in the current research are presented. A description of the selection of participants, the in-depth interview process, data collection and analysis procedures have also are discussed at length.


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Chapter 3: Method '‘Exactness beyond need is pedantry, and the final curiosity o f the scientist is not satisfied by numbers. When he learns that the human germ cell contains 46 chromosomes, he wants to know why this is so, and the final answer cannot be a quantity. Both science and art, then, are after qualitative facts, and measurements are means to an end in both. ” Rudolph Arnheim, Visual Thinking, 1969

Although a number of quantitative studies (Fort & Varney, 1989; Barman 1997; 1999) have been conducted on young White Americans’ perceptions of scientists, engineers, and technology professionals, a thorough review of relevant literature has revealed few studies (Hrawbowski, Maton & Greif, 1998; Hrabowski, Maton, Greif, & Greene, 2002) on African Americans’ perceptions of scientists, engineers, and technology professionals. Many studies (Tan & Tan, 1979; Graves, 1980, 1982, 1993; Allen & Hatchett, 1986; Allen, 1993) however, have suggested that television and some film content has had a negative influence on African American children’s self-concept. However, missing in this area of study is research that has specifically examined media influence of the portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology professionals in television and film content and the effects such portrayals may or may not have on African American children’s perceptions of scientists, engineers, and technology workers. To fulfill the previously stated primary purpose of this study—which is to explore ways in which a group of 5th grade African American students have been influenced by television and film-related media portrayals of science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (SET) disciplines and workers - qualitative data collection and analysis procedures were used. The qualitative research paradigm was selected for this study primarily because the aim of qualitative research is to portray the reality of the area under investigation, and to enhance understanding of the contextual parameters and the


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meanings and values attributed to these parameters by the individuals selected for this study. Emphasizing the value of individual experiences and views as encountered in reallife situations does not involve the quantification of facts. Qualitative Research Paradigm The basic assumptions of the qualitative mode of inquiry used for this study are that qualitative researchers are primarily concerned with process rather than outcomes or products; qualitative researchers are interested in meaning; and, the research involves fieldwork, is descriptive, inductive, and requires researchers to be the primary instruments for data collection and analysis (Creswell, 1994). Because qualitative research is interpretive and a lack of previous research exists on the influence of media on the under-representation of African Americans in scientific, engineering, and technological careers, this approach presents a better match for studying the underlying issues of the problem. It also is better suited for research involving children. A qualitative approach also yields in-depth insights that may lead to more innovative and meaningful quantitative studies than have been undertaken in the past in this area of study. To better understand the influence of media character portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers on the perceptions of 5th grade African American students, a phenomenologically-oriented strategy was used for the purpose of extracting a deeper understanding of the “lived experiences” of the population being studied. Phenomenology Because the phenomenological study describes the meaning of the lived experiences for several individuals (Creswell, 1994), the phenomenon is investigated as it


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is lived, not as it is theorized (Berry, 2002). Consequently, rather than pursuing objective meaning of an experience, the phenomenologist attempts to reveal aspects of the experience that may be known from the interpretations of those who are closest to it in order to give the experience meaning (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994). According to Berry, (2002) it is through the shared constructions between the individuals and the researcher that awareness of the lived experiences is enhanced and knowledge is derived, thus reality is constructed and not discovered (Berry, 2002; Denzin & Lincoln, 1994). According to Fetterman (1998), the subjective reality each individual sees is no less real than an objectively defined and measured reality, because people act on their individual perceptions and these actions have real consequences (p. 5). Thus, phenomenologically-oriented studies make few explicit assumptions about sets of relationships, yielding an approach that is the basis of grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) that has posited that the theory underlying a sociocultural system or community develops directly from empirical data. This emic perspective seems well suited for a study of media’s influence on young African Americans, because of the lack of previous research dealing with the problem. Moody (1997, cited in Berry 2002) and Powell (1999, cited in Berry 2002) used phenomenological research strategies to capture the stories of African American mathematics students. Moody (1997, cited in Berry 2002) utilized interviews, surveys, and autobiographies to capture the stories of two African American female college students who have been successful with school mathematics. The support of caring adults and African American mathematics teachers, who served as role models, contributed to the mathematics success of the two African American female college students in


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Moody’s study. Powell (1999, cited in Berry 2002) utilized an initial survey, autobiographies, observations, and interviews in her phenomenological study to capture the stories of six African American college students in order to understand these student perceptions of exemplary mathematics teaching practices, their perceptions of their mathematical knowledge, and their perceptions of their interactions with peers. Powell concluded that caring was an essential ingredient in the participants’ lives. Berry (2002) explored the school and mathematical experiences of African American male middle-school students who have been successful with school mathematics and explored the elements of their experiences that led to their success from their perspectives. He found through his conversations with the male students, that many had overcome similar barriers to those he had experienced and overcome as an African American male in middle school. These similar experiences helped him to shape questions about characteristics and perceptions common to success in school mathematics. The overarching research questions that will be addressed in this study through this qualitative research approach have again been presented in the following section. Research Questions According to DeFleur (1964), the characteristics of portrayed workers may constitute an important dimension of the incidental lessons on the labor force that children receive daily as they view television. If the image of a particular occupation is consistently composed of negative attributes, this may provide the youngster with a significant source of negative orientations toward that occupation (p. 72). In light of this the following question is posed:


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RQ1: What are 5th grade African American students’ perceptions of the world of work in television and film-related media content? How this compares to the influence of other possible major influences in the students’ lives (i.e. parents, teachers, peers, other media) in this respect was also addressed. The second research question is next. RQ2: Do 5th grade African American children identify with African American characters or roles they have frequently and recently seen in television and film content, particularly those in science, engineering or technology workers roles? According to Morgan and Huntemann (2001) the quantity and redundancy of mass media images accumulate as part of the overall childhood experience. This accumulated experience contributes to “the cultivation of a child’s values, beliefs, dreams, and expectations, which shape the adult identity a child will carry and modify throughout his of her life” (p. 311). As discussed at length in Chapter 2, it is the relative presence and nature of the depiction of African Americans in television, film, and other media content that may greatly influence the perceptions and behavior of African American children. The last research question of this study follows next. RQ3: How are 5th grade African American student perceptions of math and science courses in school and careers in the scientific disciplines being influenced by portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers in television and film content they have frequently and recently viewed? Wright et al. (1995) found that children tend to form different occupational role schemata for television and real life, but that children who watch more television


perceive television to be socially realistic and are apt to incorporate television messages into their real-life schemata. Study Participants Nineteen 5th grade students at three elementary schools in Portsmouth, Virginia, who were current participants in the National Science Foundation’s GK-12 Program at a four-year Virginia university, and fifteen 5th grade students in the Cooperating Hampton Roads Organizations for Minorities in Engineering (CHROME) program in Hampton, Virginia (20 miles from Portsmouth), participated in the study. The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) program awarded a three-year grant to Old Dominion University’s College of Engineering and Technology for its graduates to address the challenging issues in K-12 education across a broad spectrum of schools and educational levels. th

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Twenty-one Graduate Fellows partnered with twenty 4 and 5 grade teachers to work toward improving the content of science and mathematics taught in school. The program - designed to promote strong partnerships between institutions of higher education and local school districts, improve communication and teaching skills for the Fellows, and enrich K-12 teacher and student appreciation for, and skills and knowledge in SET - is based on a constructivist approach for learning as an active and continuous process, where students take information from the classroom and construct personal interpretations and meanings based on prior knowledge and experience (Von Glasterfeld, 1995; Jarvinen, 1998; cited in Williamson, Ndahi, Waters, and Nelson, 2005). The students are considered “at-risk” because of the existence of social factors such as poverty, family breakdown, substance abuse, violence, and homelessness which, at times,


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have affected classroom behavior (p. 5). The investigator of this study was the Research Advisor on this project who participated with the GK-12 Fellows, GK-12 Teachers, and 4th and 5th grade students on a regular basis during the three-year grant which concludes on April 30, 2005. CHROME, a regional partnership of organizations that include universities, labs, businesses, government agencies, school systems and professional organizations whose main goal is to steer minorities into engineering, as well as science, math, and technology fields, is a 1997 recipient of NSF’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, administered on behalf of the White House by the National Science Foundation. For over twenty years CHROME has helped elementary, middle, and high schools run programs that open students’ eyes to the possibilities of careers they may never have thought of and has guided them in finding out what they need to do to get ready for these careers. There are currently 2,100 CHROME members representing 13 school districts within the Hampton Roads cities of Portsmouth, Norfolk, Suffolk, Hampton, Newport News, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, and Isle of Wight County in Virginia. CHROME students are taught in the more traditional science classroom yet most are introduced to the constructive pedagogical approach during the CHROME club meetings and are allowed to actively develop, test, and revise their ideas about how things work through collaborative firsthand inquiry with their peers. A fitting tribute to CHROME on the occasion of its 20th anniversary is provided in Appendix D. The investigator in this study is the current Board Chair of CHROME - created in 1983 by a group of professors at Old Dominion University in Virginia who were


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concerned about the low representation of minorities pursuing careers in science and engineering fields at the post-secondary level - and the Research Advisor on NSF’s GK12 Program. The investigator’s involvement with both the GK-12 and the CHROME programs decreased the potential bias that may have resulted if this affiliation was with one of the programs exclusively. Selection o f Participants Nineteen 5th grade student participants in the National Science Foundation’s GK12 program were selected from a total of 60 participants in the program in Portsmouth. According to Creswell (1994), the idea of qualitative research is to purposefully select respondents that will best answer the research questions (p. 148). No attempt was made to randomly select respondents (p. 148). Participants were given parental consent forms and student consent forms were also used to procure participants’ consent. Participants could use code names if they chose to do so. Some wanted to use their own names. Each participant was paid $10.00 for their participation in this study. All participants in the GK-12 program attend schools located in Federallydesignated empowerment zones in Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia. The Empowerment Zone (EZ) concept in America originated as Enterprise Zone programs in England under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (U.S. General Accounting Office, 1988). The basic premise was that lining businesses with low taxes and tax incentives could revitalize areas of persistent poverty. Former President Ronald Reagan imported the idea of Enterprise Zones to America in the 80’s for application at the state level.


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In 1991, thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia had passed enterprise zone legislation for approximately 500 zones (Federation for Industrial Retention, 1994). In 1994, former President Bill Clinton reshaped the idea of enterprise zones into a federal and presidential initiative now known as Empowerment Zones (state level Enterprise Zones still exist, however). The current poverty rate in Empowerment Zones is nearly 36% with an unemployment rate of approximately 14%. Participants were selected by current GK-12 Fellows from the total population pool in Portsmouth. Priority was given to students attending the worst performing schools according to standards defined in Governor Warner’s PASS (Partnerships for the Achievement of Successful Schools). One of the schools was officially given the “accredited with warning” classification. The other two schools were rated “provisionally accredited, needs improvement.” Likewise, fifteen 5th grade participants in CHROME’S program were selected from two elementary schools in Hampton, Virginia, 15 miles across the water from Portsmouth. These schools have been designated “fully accredited” and are located in non-Empowerment Zones. Students were selected by CHROME Club Sponsors from eligible 5th grade students at all schools. CHROME Club Sponsors were given letters of consent to request their participation as coordinators of the research study. Parental and student consent forms were given to the CHROME Club Sponsors for distribution to the parents and students. Parents returned parental consent forms to the CHROME sponsors. Students signed consent forms before the actual interview was conducted. Consent forms are in Appendix C.


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Establishing the Trustworthy Environment for Conducting Interviews According to Fetterman (1998), the trust the group places in the intermediary will approximate the trust it extends to the researcher at the study’s inception (p. 33). The intermediary(s) in this research effort were the 3 GK-Fellows and Teachers at the selected schools and CHROME’s Executive Director and Resource Manager who are members of the GK-12 Advisory Board. Additionally, as stated previously, the author of this study is a member of the GK-12 Advisory Board and the Board Chair of the CHROME Board of Directors. These human resources, having already established an environment of trustworthiness at participating schools, produced the “halo effect” (p. 34) benefit documented by Fetterman (1998) that enabled the researcher’s capacity to work in a community, thus improving data quality. Once in the classroom, specific methods and techniques guided the researcher in the process of data collection and analysis. The following section discusses each of these techniques. Data Collection Procedures A variety of methods and techniques were used to ensure the integrity of the data, such as: questionnaires; one-on-one, in-depth, unstructured interviews; participant observation, and the Draw-a-Scientist tests. These were used to explore the construction of the respondent’s world of media and perceptions toward scientists, engineers, and technology workers in television and film-related media. Data to be collected and rationale for collection are discussed in the next section.


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Questionnaire Recent literature on the media use of young children (Kaiser Foundation, 1999, 2003, 2005) suggests the importance of administering a brief media use questionnaire in this study prior to the interviewing process. The questionnaire used for this purpose in this study was pilot-tested with a small sample (3 students) with similar demographics to the intended group of respondents, to establish validity and to modify items that were not clear (Creswell, 1994). During this procedure, the pilot test questions were found to be too long to hold the attention of the participants and 20 questions were eliminated from the instrument. The media use questionnaire and the interview protocol used in the study are provided in Appendix A. The sample interview given in the pilot test is in Appendix B. The first seven questions in this instrument were asked to elicit a broad picture of the respondent’s world of media and frequency of media use. Questions number 8 and number 9 were specific questions designed to ascertain if the respondent identified with any of the character portrayals in the television programs or movies, DVDs and/or videos viewed. If the respondent indicated he or she played with video games every day or several times each week (i.e., were heavy users of video games), he or she also was asked if he or she had any favorite character portrayals in these video games. Questions 10-12 were specific questions designed to elicit the respondent’s knowledge about jobs, about what jobs they identify with the most, and where they might go to find information about jobs they are interested in. Questions 13 and 14 provided general demographic information and were used specifically to ascertain any differences and/or similarities between boys and girls, and


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between older and younger respondents. However, it must be noted that all participants were in the 5th grade, although there were various ages. All questions in the Questionnaire Protocol described below were intended to yield responses related to each of the three primary research questions. In-depth Interview Strategies Qualitative interviews were conducted to provide a deeper understanding of the attitudes participants had about science (including math and technology) classes at school, to yield information that would enable formulating unique interpretations regarding participants’ ideas about how minority portrayals in television and film-related media made them feel about themselves, to understand how television and film-related media content was integrated consciously or subconsciously in the African American students’ lived experiences, and how these experiences reinforced or discouraged the students’ understanding of themselves and the world in which they lived. Pedhazur and Schmelkin (1991) noted that certain areas of study and certain types of information “may lend themselves more naturally to the use of interviews” and are the only “viable mode of obtaining the information sought from children” (p. 133). Therefore, open-ended unstructured interviewing procedures using a variety of survey, specific, structural, and attribute questions were employed that enabled building a basic map of the respondents’ media world to be constructed. Closed-ended questions were also used for quantifying behavior patterns and provided a useful test for varying perceptions of reality and a means of documenting the frequency of a particular behavior pattern (Fetterman, 1998, p. 44). It was anticipated that the answers received in the


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interviews would assist with the organization and understanding of how these and other children define reality. According to Fontana and Frey (1994), the use of language and specific terms is very important also for creating a “sharedness of meanings” in which both interviewer and respondent understand the contextual nature of the interview, especially when interviewing children (p. 371). Fontana and Frey (1994) also observed that many studies using unstructured interviews are not reflexive enough about the interpreting process; common platitudes proclaim that data speak for themselves, that the researcher is neutral, unbiased and “invisible” (p. 372). However, it is also known that no matter how organized the researcher is, he or she will inevitably become buried under a growing collection of interviews, observations, and the like that must be analyzed appropriately to extract the best meanings that address the research problem.

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Other strategies cited by Fetterman (1998) that are helpful in conducting interviews are to: ■S Place the respondent at ease. •f In exploratory work, letting the respondent control the communication flow is most useful. ■S Silence is also a valuable interview strategy. Learning how to tolerate the empty space between question and reply is difficult for most Americans. The fieldworker learns not to routinely jump in and clarify a question whenever silence falls (p. 47).


Children can be difficult to interview. Even tweens (i.e. 5th graders in this instance), including the most talkative tweens, tend to become rather timid when a microphone is placed in front of them. In this study it was found to be quite helpful to initiate a conversation with the prospective interviewee about 15 minutes before actually turning the recorder on, in order to ease the tension between the interviewer and interviewee. In addition, the children in this study were rather motivated in talking to the researcher because they considered it a job, getting paid $10.00 for the hour or so of interview time. This was a great boost to their esteem, especially to the children who attended schools in Empowerment Zone communities. There were still those times, however, when some of the children were still rather reticent about communicating their opinions freely. During times like these, the researcher found it helpful to focus on something that the interviewee wanted to discuss. For example, a favorite movie, holiday, teacher or similar subject seemed to be points of discussion that enabled the young participants to become comfortable with the interview process and research questions. The timeframe in which the study occurred is discussed in the next section. Timeframe The previously mentioned pilot study was conducted in May 2004. In the subsequent full-scale interview process, the sixteen in-depth interviews from the GK-12 population were conducted over a one week period in June 2004. Data analysis of the completed interviews occurred from June to August, 2004. Fifteen in-depth interviews from the CHROME population were conducted within a 6-week period beginning in October and November 2004. Data analysis occurred between December, 2004 and February, 2005.


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Data Recording Procedures Interviews were recorded on audiotape to preserve the anonymity of the respondents and a journal was maintained to record reflective notes and observations during the interviewing process, for the investigator’s research purposes only. Some of the participants selected code names, such as “Yu-Gi-Oh” or “Air Force One” or “Pretty Black.” However, most of the students preferred using their own names or nicknames. Descriptive notes of the setting were recorded in the journal as an observational protocol. While the notes recorded in the journal were rather helpful when deciphering the maze of information received in qualitative interviews and adding detail to the results, this was basically a supplemental aspect of the interview process. In addition, because of the nature of these interviews, comprehensive note taking was not possible. Participants were allowed approximately fifteen to twenty minutes to draw images of a scientist or engineer. They were requested to: (1) draw a picture of what they thought (italics mine) a scientist or engineer looked like; and, (2) draw a picture of themselves as a scientist or engineer based upon the way they saw themselves as participants in the science classroom. The first question was phrased this way because Symington and Spurling (1990) pointed out in their study that students seemed to be drawing what they perceived to be the public stereotype of a scientist, and not necessarily their own perception of a scientist. Crayons were provided in case the participants wanted to color the drawings. Because data collection and analysis are mostly interwoven simultaneously in qualitative research, data was analyzed as promptly as possible after collection, to ensure


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that qualitative elements of the interview would be recalled as accurately as possible (Creswell, 1994). Other data analysis procedures are discussed in the next section. Data Analysis Procedures Although there is flexibility in the establishment of rules that governs how one goes about sorting through interview transcriptions and observational notes, Creswell (1994) observed, “that one forms categories of information and attaches codes to these categories” (p. 154). “These categories,” wrote Creswell, “form the basis for the emerging story to be told by the qualitative researcher” (p. 154). Some codes undoubtedly were placed in more than one category. The categorized data were written on 4 x 6 index cards and stored manually in a card file box with the name of each category which was generally under the heading of each of the three primary research questions that guided this study. Other categories derived from each data collection method were clustered around each research question. A list was compiled of categories that related to each research question. Once all the research questions had been addressed through inputting data into the categories, the information pertaining to each question was examined and reviewed for inclusion in the summary report. Findings were verified against the research journal entries to identify whether the researcher’s views recorded prior to or during the study had influenced interpretation of the data gathered. The Draw-a-Scientist-Test drawings were analyzed according to a compilation of seven indicators of stereotypes identified by Finson, Beaver, and Cramond (1995). Additionally, several indicators from the Draw-a-Scientist-Test revised prompt (DASTR) by David Symington and Heather Spurling (1990) were used to implement the


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researcher’s Draw-a-Scientist-Test Underrepresented Minority prompt (DAST-URM). This offers a more culturally sensitive approach of describing perceptions and attitudes of underrepresented minorities regarding the images of scientists and engineers in television, film, and related media. Sample Draw-a-Scientist Test drawings have been provided in Chapter 4 and in Appendix D. Verification Every effort was employed to ensure that data analysis was consistent with the philosophical parameters of the study. Additionally, efforts were undertaken to demonstrate that the findings of the study were trustworthy in terms of dependability, confirmability, credibility and transferability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). A criterion used for establishing the confirmability of research is the establishment of an audit trail (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). This allows other researchers to understand and evaluate how the data was coded and categorized, why data was placed into these codes and categories, and how they were clustered to answer the research questions. In establishing credibility, analysis procedures included triangulation of data by comparing interpretations and recordings, and data collection methods. In coding and categorizing the data, attention was given to not losing contextual and descriptive components of the data that contributed to the transferability of the research. Thus, data placed in categories would be easily traceable to the original transcript to permit the review of any additional contextual data. An active search for contrasts, comparisons, outliers, and extreme cases were used as tactics for testing the viability of patterns. Attempts to rule out spurious conclusions


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and to look for negative evidence were conducted. Feedback from respondents was used at any point in the research process to verify findings. Conclusion In sum, because in qualitative data analysis the primary focus is not on the quantification of facts, but rather on the identification of meanings and values attributed by individuals in real-life situations, the precise nature of each person’s view was captured and recalled and data was presented in a logical sequence in relation to the research questions addressed in the study. In Chapter 4, results of the in-depth interviews, including the findings of the media use questionnaire and the Draw-A-Scientist-Test (URM) have been presented. A representative sample of the participants’ drawings has also been included in Chapter 4.


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Chapter 4: Key Findings “Which, the real or the image, is the reflection o f the other? ” Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 1994

In this chapter, the results of the in-depth, qualitative research interviews, with 5th grade African American students in the two cohorts, CHROME and National Science Foundation’s (NSF) GK-12 program, described in Chapter 3 are presented. Major findings in the study are noted first. This is followed by a presentation of the media use questionnaire findings. The interview findings categorized according to each of the three research questions that guided the study as a whole are then discussed. The specific purpose of this exploratory study, as discussed in Chapter 1 was to examine the ways television and film-related media portrayals of science, engineering, and technology (SET) fields and their workers have influenced a group of 5th grade African American students’ perceptions of SET fields, their workers, and their perceptions of the mathematics and science courses taken at school. The primary assumption behind the purpose of the study was that the mass media, in general, and the content in television and film-related media, in particular, provide substantial amounts of information through entertainment programming storylines about scientists, engineers, and persons who work with computers and other forms of information technologies. The information may or may not be accurate, may or may not be central to the characters’ lives, but nevertheless, it may shape the perceptions of children that are exposed to it. In this study, the influence of this media content on African American “tweens” (particularly fifth graders in this instance) was explored.


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Key Findings Five general findings emerged that seemed to address the overall purpose of the study. They were that: 1. television was the dominant medium used on a daily basis by the participants in this study; 2. the majority of the study participants had been influenced to a great extent by what they viewed in television and in film-related media and their content and were prone to modeling behaviors of certain characters considered successful by them; 3. the majority of the study participants had been exposed to various media portrayals of SET fields and their practitioners and, for the most part, these images and the interviewees’ perceptions of them could be categorized as fantastic, anthropomorphic, and mythological; 4. the majority of the study participants were aware that there were few African American portrayals of scientists, engineers, or technology workers in television, film, or related media and, 5. the awareness of the omission of African Americans as SET workers in television and film-related media portrayals was one of the reasons that many participants believed that African Americans are most likely to not pursue careers in scientific fields. Findings will be discussed further in this chapter. However, the various SET worker images that the CHROME study participants had been exposed to and which have been construed as “negative” by the National Science Foundation in the past seemed, in


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many cases, to have a limited influence on the study participants’ perceptions of SET careers, SET practitioners and their math and science courses taken in school. On the other hand, the influence of media content appeared greater with the GK-12 study participants than with the CHROME study participants. The following section presents the results of the media use questionnaire that was given to each of the 34 students prior to and as part of the in-depth interview process. Media Use Questionnaire The media use questionnaire (Appendix A) was administered orally to each study participant at the beginning of the individual interview. Its purpose was to provide insights regarding 5th grade participants’ media use and to serve as a point of departure for the more in-depth portions of the interview that was directly related to the respondent’s perceptions of SET workers and careers and television and other media portrayals of them. While the collective responses to this questionnaire are not, nor or they intended to be, statistically representative of the perceptions of African American tweens generally, the overall responses of the 5th grade students that participated in this qualitative study do at least indirectly provide some insights regarding how television and film media and media portrayals of SET workers may be influencing the thoughts and behavior of children in this age and ethnic group about SET careers and math and science courses in school. A number of generalizations are presented below that appeared to emerge from the analysis of responses to the media use questionnaire. Television as Primary Medium o f Study Participants As previously discussed and as indicated in the Media Use Findings Table 1 in Appendix E, responses to the media questionnaire suggested that the primary medium


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used by 5th grade African American students that participated in this study is television. Twenty-six of thirty-four respondents watched television every day, primarily because of its accessibility in the home. Second, in response to being asked about the “top three careers” they would most like to have, the participants listed a wide variety of typical careers. Many of these careers or roles within them typically have been greatly popularized in television, and film-related media content (e.g., lawyer, doctor, police officer, etc.). Conversely, the Media Use Findings Table in Appendix E also reflects the finding that 5th grade African American study participants have become increasingly interactive with media other than television—computers and video games. The media usage questionnaire revealed eight participants used the computer every day and 11 played video games daily. Careers Selected by Study Participants In order to provide further analysis of the perceptions of the world of work in television, film, and related media content of 5th grade study participants, primarily African American CHROME and NSF’s GK-12 students, (Research Question 1), participants were asked to list three jobs they considered doing when they became adults. The jobs listed by the participants were used later in the Exploratory Protocol 2 (Appendix A) portion of the in-depth interview process to further ascertain how the selected careers were related or not related to character portrayals viewed mostly in television and film-related media content by study participants. The top three careers selected by NSF’s GK-12 participants, with the number of times selected in parentheses were: Lawyer (6), Doctor (5), Teacher (5); and Police


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Officer (3). Others selected were: Pediatrician (2), Hairstylist (1), Registered Nurse (1), Correctional Officer (1), Model (1), Dancer (1), Chef (1), President (1), Army Officer (1), Travel Agent (1), Architect-Engineer (1), Mechanic (1), Wrestler (2), Brick Mason (1), Singer (2), Archaeologist (1), Pro-Basketball Player (1), Fashion Designer (1). On the other hand, the top three careers chosen by CHROME respondents with number of times selected in parentheses were: Scientist (6), Teacher (5), including 1 Math and Science Teacher, and Engineer (2). Other careers chosen, with number of times selected in parentheses were: Psychologist (1), Pediatrician (1), Lawyer (1), Actor (2), Chef (1), Veterinarian (1), Dentist (1), Cardiologist (1), Brain Surgeon (1), Fashion Designer (1), Skateboarder (1), Rapper (1), Obstetrician (1), Ballet Teacher (1), and Singer (1). The majority of the respondents in both groups selected careers based upon roles viewed on television or in other film-related media content. However, three CHROME participants selected careers as scientists (2) and engineers (1) because a parent was a scientist or engineer. Two respondents, 1 White female and 1 White male were not included in the survey because, although they were CHROME Club members, they were not members of the target audience for this study. Their comments are, however, included in the interview portion of the study. Study Participants ’Identification with Black Actors and Actresses and Non-Race Specific Animated Characters To further explore how the 5th grade study participants identified with African American characters or roles and scientists, engineers, and technology character portrayals frequently and recently viewed in television and film-related media content


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(Research Question 2), respondents were asked to list their top three media celebrities, or heroes they admired or identified with, and to list which one they would most like to be like, [if any]. Participants tended to list mostly African American celebrities and entertainers such as, Will Smith, 50 Cents, and Beyonce, although it should be noted that fictional non-race specific characters such as Yu-Gi-Oh or Sponge Bob Square Pants were also listed as celebrities or heroes. Favorite celebrities or heroes listed by GK-12 respondents were: Kyla Pratt (Penny Proud) (The Proud Family), Raven (That’s So Raven), Beyonce (singer), Usher (singer), Tia and Tamara (Sister, Sister), Sponge Bob (Sponge-Bob Square Pants), and Yu-Gi-Oh (Yu-Gi-Oh). Others listed once were: Digimon, Pokemon, 50 Cents, Michael Jackson, Martin Lawrence, Will Smith, Steve Nash (NBA Player), Alicia Keys, Halle Berry, Jimmy Neutron, Fairly Odd Parents, Kelly Price, Mary J. Blige, Denzel Washington, Sanaa Lathan, Emeril the Chef, Hilary Duff, Snoop Doggy Dog, D. L. Hugely, Lil Bow-Wow, Nicki Parker, Cameron Diaz, Stephen Seagall, Walker Texas Ranger, DMX-1, Aaliyah, The Rock, and The Wayans Family. Sources o f Career Information for Study Participants In order to further explore the major sources influential in the participants’ selection of certain careers, participants were asked where they would most likely go to find information about jobs (Research Question 1). The choices were: family member, friend, public library, school counselor, school library, teacher, websites, books, magazines, television, videos/DVDs, the Internet, or other. Participants gave a “yes” or “no” answer for each choice.


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More than half of the GK-12 participants indicated television as a source of information about careers. The group also chose teachers, their school, public libraries, and school counselors as other sources they would most likely consult regarding career choices. The least noted sources of information were encyclopedias, brochures, and newspapers. Family members and friends as sources were somewhat in the middle range of the frequency of responses. On the other hand, more than half of the CHROME respondents indicated the use of the Internet, books, family members, teachers, and the public library as major sources of career information. Less than half would use the television, the school library or consult friends and school counselors as sources of career information. Magazines, Videos/DVDs, and the newspaper were the least likely to be used sources of career information for CHROME study participants. However, it must be emphasized that the media questionnaire findings are less relevant than the findings revealed in the following section that are based on the entirety of the in-depth interviews. In-Depth Interviews Study participants were interviewed individually for approximately 60 minutes. Emergent themes, data, quotes, and related theories were organized and presented according to the research questions which were interspersed within each portion of the interview protocol (see Appendix A). The first portion of the interview occurred during the first 15 minutes and addressed Research Questions 1, 2, and 3. Participants were asked if they had ever seen a television program, movie in a theater or video/DVD that had a character who was a


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scientist, engineer, or someone who worked with computers. If the answer was yes, participants were asked to further delineate specific television programs, movies, videos/DVDs, or video games. If the answer was no, participants were asked why they thought they did not see scientists, engineers, or persons who worked with computers in television and film-related media programs. Next, the same question was asked regarding the participants’ viewing of African Americans in the roles of scientists, engineers, or persons who worked with computers. If participants had not viewed a substantial number of African Americans in these roles, the question was asked why they thought they did not see African Americans as scientists, engineers, or persons who worked with computers in television and film-related media programs. Participants were also asked if they would like to see a Black person portrayed as a scientist, engineer, or someone who works with computers and if seeing Blacks portrayed in these fields would make them feel better about their math and science courses in school and pursuing careers as a scientist, engineer, or technology worker. Referring to the top three careers the participant had listed on the media use questionnaire, they were asked if the job choices they selected would possibly change to a job where math or science is used if they saw more Blacks portrayed as scientists, engineers, or technology workers on television and in film-related media content. Key findings from the first portion of the interview protocol (Appendix A) are presented in the following three sections.

R eproduced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. F urther reproduction prohibited w itho ut perm ission.

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Study Participants ’ Perceptions o f Portrayals o f Scientists, Engineers, and Technology Workers in Television and Film-related Media Content Findings revealed that although study participants have been exposed to frequent portrayals of scientists, engineers, or technology workers in television and film-related media content, they have often learned more about the dangerous (often fantastic or mythological) side of scientists than of the altruistic nature of scientists. Additionally, more than half of the participants expressed the belief that scientists were serious, secretive, and could not be trusted. On the other hand, nearly half of the participants in the CHROME and NSF’s GK-12 groups perceived the scientist, engineer and technology worker as mostly altruistic in nature, whose work is mostly beneficial to mankind. Yet, overall when considering the responses of both groups collectively, the majority of the respondents reported often viewing the dark, ominously mysterious side of the scientist, engineer, and technology worker. Some of the SET portrayals identified by the study participants as representing the mysterious side of the scientist were Frankenstein (“I saw the Frankenstein movie...I wouldn’t want to be a scientist like that to create evil people”); Resident Evil (“The girl in Resident Evil is a scientist. Her name is Laura. One day she helped a professor. They brought back people from the dead and they blew up the town”); or, The Incredible Hulk (“The Hulk... his father was a scientist. His father was a bad scientist because he made the Hulk drink something that messed up his system when he was a baby that made him turn into the Hulk”).


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Study Participants ’Perceptions o f African American Portrayals o f Scientists, Engineers, and Technology Workers in Television and Film-related Media Content Findings revealed that the 5th grade African American study participants have experienced infrequent exposure to media portrayals of African American scientists, engineers, and technology workers in television and film-related media content. The majority of participants stated a desire to see more Black portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers in television and in film-related media content and indicated it would probably inspire them to consider scientific fields more and have a greater appreciation of the math and science courses taken in school. The majority of the participants believed they do not see Blacks as scientists or engineers on television and in film-related media because Whites do not believe Blacks have the ability to perform as scientists, engineers or technology workers. The Influence o f Television and Film-related Media Content on Study Participants ’ Perceptions o f School Math and Science Courses and Careers In order to frilly explore how the study participants’ perceptions of math and science courses in school were actually being influenced by portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers in television and film-related media content they had frequently and recently viewed, participants were asked how it made them feel when they viewed African Americans as scientists, engineers, or technology workers on television and in film-related media content and if it made them like their math and science courses in school more. The findings of this study revealed overall that participants’ perceptions of school math and science courses and careers within the scientific discipline were being influenced somewhat by media portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology


workers. However, at the same time, the study participants as a whole were often being influenced positively by science and technology-oriented role models in the math-science classroom (NSF’s GK-12 Fellows at Old Dominion University), and through participation in after-school math and science clubs such as CHROME. However, because there are so few portrayals of African Americans as scientists, engineers, or technology workers in television and in film-related media content, it was difficult to gain a full indication of the feelings study participants collectively experienced when viewing an African American portrayal of a scientist or engineer. Perceived Realism o f Study Participants ’ Experiences with Television and Film-Related Media Portrayals The second portion of the interview protocol (Appendix A) occurred after the participant’s drawing of a scientist or engineer, but is discussed in this section for continuity of the interview protocols. This portion continued for fifteen minutes and addressed Research Questions 1, 2, and 3. The major interest was in the participants’ perceived world experiences with their favorite characters in their favorite television, movies, videos/DVDs, and video games. Questions were asked about their favorite characters’ occupations (if character was a child, participant was asked what did the character’s parents do) and asked to describe the similarities and differences between their favorite characters’ world and the lived world of the participants. Participants were also asked if they believed their favorite characters were smart in school, and if so, what they thought the characters’ favorite subjects in school may have been.


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Such questioning was included in the interview protocol to understand further how seriously participants actually internalized the television and film-related media content they viewed. According to Van Evra (2004), if television portrayals are the only or major model for a child, or major source of information for a script for viewers who are disadvantaged, those viewers will be more likely to “emulate the television model, or to internalize the television script” (p. 17). Because the GK-12 participants attended schools in Empowerment Zones, which, as stated previously, mostly serve disadvantaged students in underrepresented minority groups, this line of questioning was important to the study. Overall, the majority of the GK-12 participants spoke about some of their favorite characters in their favorite television programs, movies, and video games as if the characters were members of their family. Television is an active element in these participants’ lives as they provided an excessive amount of detail to the programs they watched and were overly expressive regarding how such programs made them feel about themselves. These participants did believe however, that their favorite characters were smart in school, especially in math and science subjects, and that these characters were a lot like the participants. On the other hand, CHROME participants— who cited influences such as parents in the media use questionnaire regarding sources they would most likely go to in order to find information about careers— tended to view television and film characters as less real than the world they lived in and appeared to be less affected by media portrayals than their GK-12 peers.


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The following section provides key findings that emerged from the Draw-AScientist portion of the interview protocol which was given to study participants to fill in the gaps pictorially that were not discussed during the in-depth interview process. Draw-A-Scientist Test Findings The Draw-A-Scientist-Tests occurred after the first portion of the interview protocol (Appendix A) and before the second portion of the interview protocol, as discussed in the previous section. Participants were given 15-25 minutes to draw two pictures of a scientist or an engineer. One picture was to represent the participants’ perception of a scientist or engineer, and the second picture which was drawn on the back of the first was to represent the participant’s perception of himself or herself as a scientist or engineer or a picture of him or her doing science in school. This section of the in-depth interview addressed Research Questions 2 and 3. Participants were given crayons and told they could color their drawings. While participants drew pictures, the media use questionnaire was reviewed to formulate questions from items 8,9, and 10 of the interview protocol. The respondents were asked these questions to gain further insight into the participants’ perceptions of the SET fields and their practitioners. Findings from the Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST - URM) presented on the following pages revealed a variety of representations of the scientist and engineer. Although most of the drawings included some of the same stereotypes that have occurred in other Draw-A-Scientist Tests over the past 48 years, such as the white lab coats and glasses, what was particularly interesting in the drawings of the GK-12 and the CHROME participants was the remarkable creativity reflected in the drawings.


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In Figures 1 through 4, GK-12 participants reflected a diversity of perspectives of the scientist. In Figure 1, an African American female participant drew a picture of the “first deaf-scientist,” stating,

. .being deaf will not hold her back. She can do anything

she wants to do.”

Figure 1. First Deaf Scientist


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In Figure 2, GK-12 participant “Solid” drew his version of the scientist called the “Fix-It Man.” The “S” on his chest stands for “Scientist.” He has the chemicals in his hand to invent a new kind of Kool-Aid, “I want it to be white, because nobody has ever seen a white Kool-Aid before. It has a mystery taste. Sc

ij-

A

Figure 2. The 21st Century Scientist— the Fix-It-Man.


109 In Figure 3, D.G.’s representation of an engineer shows him dealing with an Energy orb contrasted with the traditional Benjamin Franklin “flying the kite” scientist.

Figure 3. Current Scientist versus Past Scientist work with Energy.


In Figure 4, Pretty Black has worked in the depths of her secret laboratory to find the cure for cancer.

Figure 4. Scientist at Work.


Ill

In Tables 2 and 3,30 indicators of the scientist or engineer are listed. They are modeled after Chamber’s (1983) DAST-C prompt (which included 7 indicators,1), an adapted version of the DAST-C prompt created by Barman (1999) that included 7 additional indicators,2 and Symington and Spurling’s (1990) DAST-R model which included 11 indicators3. Because many African American participants in this study perceived the scientist, engineer, and technology worker differently than in previous DAST models, five additional indicators reflect the stereotypes of the scientist or engineer, based upon study participants’ drawings. The five indicators that have been added to the synthesized Chambers-Barman-Symington & Spurling model that comprise the DAST-URM (underrepresented minorities) prompt for this study are: (1) scientist is non-traditional in appearance; (2) scientist is African American, mixed race or other underrepresented minority; (3) female gender only; (4) scientist is working outdoors; and, (5) scientist represents fictional character in television or film-related media. The words, “signifying the fantastic” have been added to the “scientist has mythic stereotypes” indicator of Barman’s (1997) model.

1 Chambers’ indicators are: (1) Lab coat (usually but not necessarily white), (2) eyeglasses, (3) facial growth o f hair (including beards, mustaches, or abnormally long sideburns), (4) sym bols o f research: scientific instruments and laboratory equipment o f any kind, (5) sym bols o f knowledge: principally books and filing cabinets; (6) Technology: the products o f science, and (7) Relevant captions: formulae, taxonom ic classification, the “eureka” ! syndrome, etc. (Chambers, 1987, p. 258). 2 Barman’s additional indicators are: (1) male gender only; (2) Caucasian(s) only; (3) Scientist is middleaged or elderly; (4) Scientist has mythic stereotypes (e.g., Frankenstein creatures, etc.); (5) Indications o f secrecy; (6 ) Scientist working in laboratory;, and (7) Indications o f danger. (Barman, 1999, p. 18). 3 Symington and Spurling’s indicators are: (1) Scientist enjoys or is engrossed in science; (2) doing something with a socially useful purpose; (3) consideration o f safety; (4) one person is working with another; (5 ) engaged in a scientific activity; (6) engaged in scientific inquiry; (7 ) measurement or data collection; (8) hypotheses evident; (9) repeated trials evident; (10) controlling variables evident; (11) discovery.


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As in previous DAST research (Chambers, 1983; Symington and Spurling (1990); Finson, Beaver, & Cramond, 1995; Barman, 1997,1999), features such as lab coats, symbols of research, symbols of knowledge, and scientists working in labs, were still prevalent in student drawings. However, while in most previous research, students at all grade levels tended to view scientists as white males, African American girls in this study tended to draw mostly African American female scientists or engineers. Likewise, African American boys tended to draw African American male scientists or engineers. Participants in this study also tended to draw more scientists with mythic stereotypes of the fantastic as scientist who were non-traditional in appearance, although most were viewed as having socially useful purposes. Scientists also tended to represent more fictional characters in television.


113 Table 2 Images o f A Scientist or Engineer

CHROME Respondents Image Scientist W earing a Lab Coat Scientist Wearing Glasses Consideration o f Safety Scientist with Facial Hair Sym bols o f Research D isplayed (instruments, lab equipment) Sym bols o f Knowledge (books, clipboard, pens in pocket) Technology Represented (e.g. telephone, television, computers, etc.) Relevant Captions M ale gender only Female gender only Caucasian(s) only African Am erican(s)/M ixed race or Other URM only Scientist is non-traditional in appearance Scientist is Middle-aged/Elderly Indications o f Secrecy Scientist Working In Lab Indications o f Danger Scientist has M ythic Stereotypes signifying the Fantastic Scientist represents fictional character in television or filmrelated media Scientist enjoys or is engrossed in science Scientist has a socially useful purpose Scientists are working together Scientist working outdoors Evidence of scientific activity Evidence o f scientific inquiry Measurement/Recording or collecting data Hypothesizing or Predicting Repeated Trials Controlling variables Discovery

BOYS (N =6) 5 3 1 1 2

GIRLS (N=9) 4 2 1 0 7

1

4

1

0

3 4 0 1 3

4 3 6 4 5

2

5

3 3 3 2 2

1 2 6 2 2

2

1

2

7

4 0 1 2 2 2

4 3 3 7 6 7

2 2 2 2

7 7 3 5


114 Table 3 Images o f a Scientist or Engineer

GK-12 Respondents (N=19) Imaee Scientist W earing a Lab Coat Scientist Wearing G lasses Scientist with Facial Hair Sym bols o f Research D isplayed (instruments, lab equipment) Sym bols o f Knowledge (books, clipboard, pens in pocket) Technology Represented (e.g. telephone, television, computers, etc.) Relevant Captions M ale gender only Female gender only C aucasians) only African American(s), M ixed Race or Other URM Scientist is non-traditional in appearance Scientist is Middle-aged/Elderly Indications o f Secrecy Scientist Working In Lab Indications o f Danger Scientist has M ythic Stereotypes signifying the Fantastic Scientist represents fictional character in television or m ovies Scientist enjoys or is engrossed in science Scientist has a socially useful purpose Safety considered Scientists are working together Scientist working outdoors Evidence o f scientific activity Evidence o f scientific inquiry Measurement/Recording or collecting data Hypothesizing or Predicting Repeated Trials Controlling variables Discovery

BOYS (N=7) 5 2 2 7

GIRLS (N=12) 7 5 1 9

7

7

3

3

2 7 2 4 4

5 3 8 3 8

5

8

3 5 4 2 7

3 4 9 2 6

8

6

4

8

4 2 2 3 7 7 7

2 1 1

7 7 7 7

7 7 7 7


8 8 7

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Participants were also asked to draw a picture of what they would look like as a scientist or engineer or how they looked as they were “doing” science in their classroom. Most chose to draw the former. Tables 4 and 5 include 22 items as indicators. Again, most participants featured lab coats, glasses, and working in a lab as characteristic of themselves as scientists. One participant (GK-12) indicated in her drawing that she could not see herself as a scientist. Most viewed themselves as being scientists or engineer engaged in socially useful purposes. Table 4 Students’ Perceptions of Themselves as Scientist/Engineer ________ CHROME Respondents (N =13) Image BOYS (N =4) Scientist W earing a Lab Coat 4 Scientist W earing Glasses 2 Safety considered 1 Symbols o f Research Displayed 2 (instruments, lab equipment) Symbols o f K now ledge (books, clipboard, pens in pocket) Technology Represented (e.g. telephone, television, computers, etc.) Relevant Captions Indications o f Secrecy Scientist Working In Lab Indications o f Danger Scientist enjoys science or is engrossed in science Scientist has a socially useful purpose Scientists are working together Scientist working outdoors Evidence o f scientific activity Evidence o f scientific inquiry Measurement/Recording or collecting data Hypothesizing or Predicting Repeated Trials Controlling variables Discovery

GIRLS (N=9) 4 4 6 9

2

8

0

3

0 1 2 1 3

2 4 4 4 9

3 0 2 1 1 1

8 1 2 9 9 8

1 1 1 1

7 7 6 8

Scientist is seated at desk


116 Table 5 Students’ Perceptions o f Themselves as Scientist/Engineer

Image Scientist W earing a Lab Coat Scientist W earing Glasses Safety Considered Sym bols o f Research Displayed (instruments, lab equipment) Sym bols o f K now ledge (books, clipboard, pens in pocket) Technology Represented (e.g. telephone, television, computers, etc.) Relevant Captions Indications o f Secrecy

GK-12 Respondents (N = 19) BOYS (N =7) 1 2 1 2

GIRLS (N=12) 6 2 2 6 4 2

2 1

Scientist Working In Lab Indications o f Danger Scientist enjoys or is engrossed in science Scientist has a socially useful purpose Scientists are working together Scientist working outdoors

3 3 1 3

Evidence o f scientific activity Evidence o f scientific inquiry Measurement/Recording or collecting data Hypothesizing or Predicting Repeated Trials Controlling variables Discoveiy

1 1 1 1

Scientist is seated at desk

4 2 6 2 6 5 2 5 5 4 4 5 4 5 2

The sampling of drawings on the following pages represent participants’ perceptions of themselves as scientists. Figures 5-7 were drawn by CHROME participants and Figure 8 was drawn by a GK-12 participant. All four figures represent African American women as scientists. In Figure 5 the CHROME student is working at Johnson Space Flight Center in Houston preparing for the next shuttle launch; in Figure 6, the CHROME scientist works in her underground laboratory with a shining lamp to


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indicate she would work in the dark if it weren’t for the lamp. In Figure 7, the CHROME student is testing the latest trampoline; and in Figure 8, the GK-12 participant’s perception of herself is that of a forensic scientist, taken directly from the pages of the CSI script.

Figure 5. Takeoff and Landing. Future NASA Controls Engineer


Figure 6. Scientist working in an Underground Laboratory.

/'* > • ; • /.

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■ ■

.

V i's'

'

s -

f> ■> o ' - . '■

i j '/ , 7 f / / ..sry /

, fV

t'

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Figure 7. How high can we go on a trampoline?


119

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Figure 8. Forensic Scientist

The remaining findings of the study are presented in the following sections and are organized on the basis of the three research questions of the study. Findings Based on Three Research Questions o f the Study Black “Tween" Insights into the World o f Workfrom Television and Film-Related Media Content The first research question addressed in the current research is, What are 5th grade African American students’ perceptions of the world of work in television and filmrelated media content? Based on the interviews with Black tweens in the two groups represented in this study, it was generally found that the study participants had limited previous exposure to or experiences with real-life scientists, engineers, or technology


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personnel in the workforce, although students in both groups were part of programs that were trying to provide more well-rounded and inspiring educational experiences. An analysis of the interviews and related data revealed a number of primary themes that emerged regarding the perceptions about SET workers and fields held by the Black tweens who participated in this study. They tended to be (1) “aspirational” in their viewing preferences (Mitroff, 2004); (2) thoughtful as they sought a reflection of their lives in the medium of television (Ross, 2004, cited in Mitroff, 2004); and (3) purposeful in favoring occupations that were primarily gender-stereotyped (Defleur & Defleur, 1967). Further findings of the study and excerpts from participant interviews that relate to the above are provided in the following sections. The Black Tween as Aspirational Viewer Interview participants in this study in both the GK-12 and CHROME groups often seemed to exhibit an aspirational form of viewing behavior. Some seemed to perceive portrayals of certain SET workers in television or film content in this way, although media characters were sometimes much older than the study participant, as the following examples suggest. A male GK-12 participant stated, “I saw The Other Me (movie) on 38 (the Disney Channel).. .it was about a little boy who made a clone of himself. I thought.. .that’s what I could do if I were a scientist.” An 11-year-old female GK-12 participant commented, “I want to be an eye doctor. I like to watch the Health Channel. I watch it everyday. I see a lot of doctors on that channel. The people are in bad shape...they are really sick.” A female GK-12


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participant also paid close attention to an occupational portrayal in a movie, “The man in ‘The Wedding Planner’ [a movie] with Jennifer Lopez...[who] was a doctor.” Another female GK-12 participant who watches Emeril Live on WHRO daily stated, “I want to be a chef, like Emeril, when I grow up because the food looks good and it is fun to make. I’ve been cooking since I was six.. I cook everything.” Although a cook is not in the category of an SET worker, this example was included to reflect the fact that young students are motivated at times to select career professions based upon what is viewed on television and in other film-related media. A 12-year old male CHROME respondent noted, “I learn a lot about what people do on their jobs on The Discovery Channel. I saw a paleontologist digging up fossil animals and plants. I like the scientists I see on the Discovery Channel.” Ironically, this participant indicated his top 3 career choices were a skateboarder, an actor, and a rapper. There were several other participants, all male, who indicated they had great aspirations in the sciences, but when questioned about their top future job choices, they indicated otherwise. For example, one GK-12 student that seemed to identify with television and film portrayals of scientists contradicted this when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. His first choice was to “flip burgers at McDonalds, like my dad.” His second and third choices were to “cook at Duck Inn or at the Golden Coral.” Days o f Our Lives: Television as Mirror o f the Self A second theme that seemed to emerge from the interview data was that the participants were searching for a reflection of their lives in the television shows and movies they watched. For example, one 11-year-old CHROME female study participant stated the following:


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I watch the Animal Planet channel on cable every day. Watching Emergency Vets and Animal Planet have inspired me to become a Veterinarian. I get to watch to see what they do and watching them also helps me think about the downside of being a Vet... .like having to put the animals to sleep. I saw that happen on Animal Cops. It’s a show about these cops who try and stop people who are cruel to their animals. I also saw Dr. Dolittle several times. I think that him talking to the animals is not true.. .even though I’d like to do that. In Mitroff s (2004) study, Rick Ross, President of the Disney Channel commented on the Tween and Teen population in search of their reflection by stating: I think they’re looking for a reflection of their lives.. .So.. .they look in the mirror, and the mirror is often television. Teens find a character that reminds them of themselves, and that gives them, essentially what I call the ‘decoder ring’ to understand what their life is. So... when they go to school it’s just a little less complicated because they have seen some window into this. (p. 100). According to previous research, television and film content has tended to depict women and minorities in less prestigious jobs than White men (Signorielli, 2001). This seems to hold true in the case of portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers in television and film-related media. When such workers have been portrayed in the past, they have often been White men. Consequently, viewers, particularly children who do not see a diverse group of characters in prestigious occupations may not think they can aspire to such jobs in their lifetimes (p. 297). The scarcity of these kinds of occupational portrayals of Blacks in television shows appeared to be evident to many of the Black participants in this study. For


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example, when one female CHROME student was asked what her favorite television or movie character did for a living, she replied, “My favorite character is Nicky Parker on the Parkers. I really don’t know what she does for a living.. .she is a student, and she does really silly things at times but what I really learn when I look at her.. .1 thank God that I am the size I am, because he could have made me big.. .real big...real big and fat.” In other words, although the student couldn’t discern what her favorite character’s career was, she knew she didn’t want to “look like her.” In the absence of television and film portrayals of African Americans in SET or other prestigious jobs, study participants tended to turn their attention to other occupations where they have seen media images of successful African Americans. For example, a GK-12 male participant commented, “I would like to own my own business as an engineer. If not, I would like to be a baseball or basketball player.. .they make more money than an engineer does.” Another male GK-12 student responded, “I want to be a lawyer because I like smart things.. .1 see a whole bunch of lawyers on television: Johnnie Cochran, Judge Joe Brown, Judge Judy.. .1 can be as good as all of them are.” A majority of respondents also referenced the vast number of lawyers, judges, and police officials in shows they viewed on television. Regarding the overrepresentation of these occupations in television, Willis (2002) stated, “...television dramas more and more often introduce ...the ubiquitous African American judge or police chief...” (p. 5). Willis referred to these characters as “redeeming, judging, or threatening.. .whose race is coded as incidental or contingent.. .whose impact is often much more powerfully visual than verbal” (p. 5).


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The influence of television and cinematic role models has been explored in terms of its impact on the career aspirations and occupational goals of teenagers and children (Christiansen, 1979; King & Multon, 1995, Wright et al., 1995, cited in Mitroff, 2004). Wroblewsi and Huston (1987) noted that “occupational attitudes and aspirations are influenced by suggestion and demonstration, especially when such information is imparted by a very popular medium such as television” (p. 295). For example, a CHROME female participant stated, “My role models are the surgeons on ER.. .1 just love them. I want to be a brain surgeon when I grow up.. .sometimes when I watch ER, I usually see a few brain surgeons.. .some are Black.. .some are pale.” Upon asking the participant why she referred to Whites as “pales,” she replied, “I don’t want to call them Caucasian because that might upset them. I got the word “pale” from a movie about the first settlers that came to Virginia.. .the Indians called them pales...” This participant was questioned about the world of work of fashion designers, her second career choice, that she viewed on television. She replied, “Raven’s a fashion designer.. .America’s Next Top Model has famous designers.. .1 would like to make designs that would revolutionize the world...and if I get rejected, I’ll just try again.” Questioned about the number of teachers, her third career choice, she had viewed on television, this participant replied, “I’ve seen quite a few teachers on television.. .Raven’s mother is a teacher and there are teachers on the Lizzie McGuire show and on the Proud Family, too.” One female GK-12 participant whose top three career choices were a cardiologist, an archaeologist, and a pro-basketball player commented, “I’ve seen a lot of doctors on the Discovery Channel—on Slash Health—on this show there are different doctors who


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talk about different subjects. They’ll perform a surgery that will sometimes last for 3 or 4 hours. I have also seen a lot of archaeologists on the Discovery Channel. But, I think it was the movie Jurassic Park, that inspired me to become an archaeologist when I grow up.” A female GK-12 participant was asked if the world she saw on television or in the movies mirrored the world she lived in. She responded thusly: The world that I see, that I live in right now is tough...because people are killing people. Everybody is dying and people just can’t get along with each other. People just don’t know what to do with their mouth. Based upon the interviews regarding the insight African American study participants gleaned about the world of work and occupational portrayals in general on television and in the movies, the Discovery Channel and the Disney Channel appeared to provide a significant number of role models for the study participants to identify with or use in their own search for information or guidance concerning how to lead their lives. Moreover, some of the participants appeared to be to some degree inspired to become SET workers. Also, it appeared that this sometimes happened regardless of whether or not the portrayal of an SET worker was an African American. Gender-Stereotyped Occupational Portrayals According to Mancuso (2001), historically, occupations on television have been characterized by stereotyped portrayals, “heightening the glamour and minimizing the boring elements,” according to content analyses (p. 11). Although the majority of the study participants appeared to have learned a great deal about what people do for a living by watching television and film-related media, boys and girls in both groups of the study


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tended to hold gender-stereotyped views of the occupations portrayed, preferring to select careers considered appropriate according to traditional stereotypes for his or her gender. Boys seemed to provide more of an indication of this, in many instances, during the interview process. For example, one stated, “Like when I watched the movie, Bad Boy, I thought that being a police officer would be cool.. .and in Blue Streets, with Martin Lawrence, I wanted to be like him when he was a police office to chase everybody for this diamond.” Another respondent stated, “I’d like to be a policeman.. .1 look at a lot of police shows on television...like Cops.” Another GK-12 male participant stated, “Wrestling is what I like to watch on television.. .1 really think I could be a wrestler.. .1 could really slam-dunk somebody.” It must be noted that male participants did not directly state these career portrayals were ones they like because they are male-oriented, however, it was somewhat evident that boys liked programs that contained more of the stereotypes of the careers boys are often expected to choose. On the other hand, female participants tended to favor programs that presented stereotypes of the careers girls are expected to choose, as in Raven and Lizzie McGuire, where both shows feature occupational portrayals of fashion designers or teachers. Likewise, female study participants were more apt to consider careers as teachers and fashion designers. Boys, on the other hand, more often considered careers as policemen, or baseball or basketball players. One girl in the GK-12 group, however, chose a pro basketball player as her third career choice, that is, if she did not become a cardiologist or an archaeologist, her 1st and 2nd choices, respectively.


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Other Occupational Influences While the majority of respondents viewed television on a daily basis and movies regularly, some of the participants in both groups indicated television was not always an influential source of their career-decisions. A male GK-12 participant commented on his parents as sources used to make his career choices, “I want to be a brick mason like my daddy.. .I’m going to own my own business.. .1 also want to work with auto parts, like my mama.” Another CHROME male participant added, “I usually get information about jobs from home...because I have a lot of people at home that are really smart and they have really cool jobs.” A female CHROME participant, whose top three career choices included a math or science teacher, an engineer, and a scientist, stated that although she watched CSI every week and enjoyed watching the scientists, her decision to be a scientist or engineer when she grew up was made because her dad and uncle were engineers. “My uncle is a computer engineer and my dad works at Northrop-Grumman. Reading books really makes me think more about the jobs that are out there that I’d like to do than [does] watching television shows or movies,” she added. Another female CHROME participant responded, “I don’t pay much attention to what people do in their jobs when I look at television or movies... because both are like plays.. .the writers write what they want you to say.. .it’s not really real life.” Upon questioning this respondent as to why she watched television every day as indicated on her media questionnaire, she replied, “Because there’s not anything else to do.. .but go outside. So I watch TV or play video games.” Continuing, this participant was asked about the selection of psychiatrist as one of her career choices. She replied, “I have seen a


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couple of television shows that had a psychiatrist in it. One really helped children a lot. That’s why I would like to be a psychiatrist because it’s a good job and I would be helping somebody else.” Identification with African American Characters or Roles Frequently and Recently Seen in Television and Film-related Media Content The second research question that guided this study was, Do 5th grade African American children identify with African American characters or roles they have frequently and recently seen in television and film content, particularly those in science, engineering or technology workers’ roles? This overarching research question was posed with recognition that relationships between childhood identity development and the mass media axe complex. A similar question to this that emerges from the body of literature relevant to this study is, How are television and film-related media images integrated into the lived experiences of African American youth and how do these experiences shape an understanding of the world in which they live? An attempt to understand the African American images of SET workers presented in television and film content is based on the assumption that these images may be a significant influence on the lives of African American youth and other underrepresented minorities and their career aspirations and choices. If it is true that African American youth are frequently exposed to either negative portrayals of SET workers and/or few role models of African Americans in SET roles in television and film content, their perceptions of SET courses and careers and the extent to which they identify with and pursue them may be greatly mitigated.


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Perceived Realism o f African American Characters or Roles as SET Workers in Television and Film-related Media Content There were notable instances when participants in the study knew that television and film portrayals of SET workers and other occupations were oftentimes not presented “realistically.” For example, one CHROME female participant stated, “I also saw Dr. Dolittle. He is the doctor that can talk to the animals and they talk to him too. I think that seeing him talking to the animals is not true.. .even though I’d love to do that.” Knowing a person cannot talk to animals does not necessarily prevent a child from wanting to become a veterinarian. On the contrary, the desire to have the ability to converse with animals, as the Dr. Dolittle character did in the movie, is an example of how film and television can depict fantasy and reality simultaneously. However, children at this level of development (i.e., 5th graders) do have some capacity to distinguish between them as it relates to career interests in particular. In other words, the CHROME participants’ perception of what she has always known of what is “real”, tells her animals can’t talk to people. However, the presence of reality as revealed in Dr. Dolittle says otherwise: animals can and do talk with humans. Thus, it is the “blurred line” that exists between the participant’s perception of reality (animals can’t talk to humans) and the presence of reality in television and film content (animals do talk to humans in some television and film programs) that is forever problematic unless the viewer emerges from the world of characters in the real world to the world of imagination of Todorov’s (1975) “fantastic.” “If animals speak in a fable,”


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Todorov wrote, “doubt does not trouble the [viewer’s]4 mind: he knows that the words of the text are to be taken in another sense, which we call allegoricaF (p. 32). Nearly all of the participants had also viewed another Murphy movie, The Nutty Professor I or II which was most often referred to when questioned about the number of Blacks as scientists, engineers, or technology workers they had viewed in television or in the movies. More than half of the respondents liked the movie and thought the Nutty Professor was “funny.” This was reflected in individual comments such as, “I did see the Nutty Professor.. .Dr. Dolittle too. They are funny.. .they can be entertaining and they could teach at the same time”; “I bought the Nutty Professor movie on video. I watch it once a month. I learned that he makes chemical DNA... it has something to do v/ith your chromosomes. It showed me how to deal with chemicals and to mix stuff.. .like a new drink”; “I liked it. Yea, I thought about being a scientist when I saw it.” Such comments were offered by participants, even though most knew the events in the movie were not likely to occur in everyday life. The other half of the respondents that talked about this film believed the Nutty Professor character was “funny” but did not perceive Eddie Murphy as a “real” scientist “.. .because he kept turning himself into somebody else,” as one male CHROME participant observed. Another sampling of quotes from various participants that seemed to support this notion included the statement from a female CHROME participant, “he was funny but he didn’t seem like he was much of a scientist”; or, as a male GK-12 participant observed, “he was funny and he worked hard. He was always trying to do something right, yet he would end up messing up”; another female CHROME participant 4 Todorov refers to the reader’s mind. I have changed this to the view er’s m ind to appropriate the correct operation that is conducted upon the text.


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offered her critique on the movie saying, “It wasn’t that interesting about science. It could have talked more about science or done more experimenting with the hamster, or doing and changing things for the good.” A female CHROME participant stated, “television makes scientists look like crazy madmen—like the Nutty Professor.” Study participant’s perceptions of Janet Jackson, who played the role of a female scientist in Nutty Professor II, drew similar responses, such as one GK-12 participant observed, “but she didn’t look like a scientist, she didn’t act like a scientist in the movie. She just acted like somebody that wanted to help people, like a doctor.” Although a female GK-12 participant acknowledged Jackson’s role as a scientist in the movie she also commented, “Janet Jackson was a scientist but that’s not the kind of scientist that I think is a scientist.” Thus, both Nutty Professor movies, viewed by many of the study participants prior to the time the interviews were conducted, seemed to portray the scientist within the ambiguous realm of the fantastic, a realm of “exaggeration [that] leads to the supernatural” (Todorov, 1970, p. 77). Another example of a television program with an exaggerated portrayal of SET figures within it that was watched by the majority of participants in this study was the Disney Channel’s That’s So Raven. Originally titled, Absolutely Psychic, Raven Simone, the star of the program, is a psychic teen fashion designer whose eyes dazzle as a technological tempest when peering into the future (an event which is not likely to occur in everyday life, thus relegating the program, like the professor/scientist in the Nutty Professor movies, to the status of the fantastic).


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Intelligent, popular and somewhat silly, Raven enjoys her math and science classes and has often toyed with usually ill-fated science experiments on the show. As pointed out in an earlier section of this chapter, of all the shows referenced by participants as favorable television or film programming, That’s So Raven was the most named show among study participants. A sampling of participant quotes on the hit television program included a female CHROME participant’s response to the show, who commented in the following manner: I could see Raven as a scientist. She would try and make fashion designs with electricity. I think she is smart in school, but not so sure she’s that good in science because she blew up a science experiment one time...and it made her blue all over her body. Her world is close to my world because she’s dealing with boyfriends, and being psychic. A GK-12 participant offered the following addition: I would like to grow up and be like Raven...she sings, she’s funny, just amazing. I think she’s smart in math and in science. She made a cool experiment one time. It was a giant experiment and it made a big, big, bubble and then the bubble popped and dyed her face blue for a week. “She followed her dreams when she was little and on the Cosby Show, and now she has her own show,” stated a female GK-12 participant who seemed to blur lines between fictional characters and actors that play them. In comparing the lead character in the program with herself, another female CHROME participant remarked, “Raven is smart, like me. We like fashion. I think she likes science, and she’s real smart in math.”


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Another female GK-12 participant referred to Raven’s role in the three Xenon (science fiction) movies, “Xenon is about this girl who lives out of space and tries to save the world from destruction. Raven was her best friend.” Television programs following closely behind Raven in terms of popularity among the African American girls in this study included Hilary Duff in Lizzie McGuire, “she’s not a scientist, but she’s clumsy like one. I could see her as a scientist because one time she had a dream that she was a scientist and made a stain remover.” Sponge Bob Square Pants, the fantastic image of the scientist as a sponge-talking creature who lives in water, was also a favorite of most of the participants in this study. Perceived Realism o f the Ambiguity o f SET Workers ’ Characters or Roles by Study Participants: The Polysemy o f the Image— The Fantastic as Scientist A key finding of this study was that most participants perceived SET fields and their practitioners as either that of a fantastic, mythological being or that of an altruistic being. According to Todorov, the fantastic is a particular case of the more general category of the “ambiguous vision” which includes all events which are not likely to occur in everyday life (p. 34). In television and film-related media programming that deal with portrayals of SET workers, the polysemic image of the scientist usually incarnates danger—it is the harbinger of threat and terror. In other texts of the SET worker, the double’s appearance signifies a “dawning isolation, a break with the world” (Todorov, 1973, p. 144), or infers the means of a “closer contact with others, of a more complete integration” (p. 144).


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Another endeavor that has classified the fantastic consists of the identification of the fantastic with the viewer’s individual experience (p. 34). Hence, the fantastic scientist must be judged not so much by the writer’s intentions and the mechanisms of the plot, but by the “emotional intensity it provokes.. .a tale is fantastic if the reader experiences an emotion of profound fear and terror, the presence of unsuspected worlds and powers” (Lovecraft, cited in Todorov, 1975, pp. 34-35). This idea suggests that the same emotion of profound fear and terror could also be experienced with viewers of television and filmrelated media. A sampling of quotes follow from various participants that appeared to support and exemplify the notion of the Fantastic as Scientist. A male GK-12 participant stated, for example, “I really like the television show, Static Shock...the scientists study brain babies who have super powers and stuff and the scientist has shocking powers.. .and his friend has a genius power where he can see anything.” Another female GK-12 participant, commenting on the notion that Harry Potter’s magic reflected a scientific bent, stated, “I like Harry Potter. I’ve seen all three of his movies.. .it’s a lot of magic stuff.. .wizards and witches.. .he would have to have some knowledge of science.. .math too, to do what he does.. .so, he could be a scientist knowing all that stuff. I could be one too, if I could do all those things.” More than a third of the participants who had viewed the Harry Potter movies grouped Potter’s magical wizardry within the realm of the scientific disciplines, largely because of the movies’ use of innovative technology made readily available to Potter in his role as a wizard.


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A male CHROME participant who has planned to be a scientist when he grows up stated he could envision Harry Potter as a scientist, but clearly perceived that Harry’s world was different from his, “because we don’t have flying brooms.. .and we don’t have magical wands... and we don’t have a secret school we go to with magic.” However, the participant believed Harry Potter’s favorite subjects in school would be mathematics and science, “because he looks like someone who likes science...because he wears those weird round glasses.” A female GK-12 participant commented, “I like Harry Potter. I’ve seen all the movies. I don’t want to be a scientist or someone who would mess with all of that weird stuff. I want to be a police officer like my mama. I watch Law and Order with her.” A female GK-12 respondent commented on the popular yet other-worldly Sponge-Bob Square Pants saying, “In the movie Sponge-Bob...he is a scientist...he lives in the water.. .he does a lot of secret things. The name of the movie is Sponge Bob’s Secret Adventures.” A male GK-12 participant added the following: I saw the movie Seventeen Again on Disney. There was a black boy who wanted to be a scientist.. .his parents who are divorced turn young again after they take a shower with some soap he made.. .that was some soap.. .his mom and dad fell in love again when they were young...And there’s another movie I saw on Disney. ..the Poof Point.. .they have this spinning thing and they got younger and younger until they reached the poof point and poofed out of existence.. .they got them back to the right age at the end of the movie.. .but they had a big spinning machine and they bought it with their house.. .they put their breakfast in the


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machine and pushed the button... .And I look at Yu-Gi-Oh once a week, because they show re-runs every day except Saturday. They have amazing technology in Yu-Gi-Oh. I really like it.. .monsters come out on the field.. .it’s like they got the little things on the side and then it allows the monster to come out.. .without that you can’t come out on the field.. .without the colorful lights. They fight.. .but you don’t really fight. Yu-Gi-Oh is a caring friend. He just wants to do some good in the world. Another male GK-12 Yu-Gi-Oh fan that watched the program six days a week commented on his choice to become a police officer as an adult: I believe you can play games.. .like dualing with the cards to save the world. Yu-Gi-Oh’s job is to stop the evil people from destroying all the good people. It’s my monster can beat your monster. I play the video game when I can. I read YuGi-Oh comic books, too. I’ve learned from this show that you can’t trust all people. We are a lot alike. I could save the world by being a police officer and putting all the bad people in jail. This participant talked about his other favorite technologically-themed programs, the action movie, Digimon and the television show, Pokemon, of which he said, “the show has different varieties of electricity, fire, water and psychic stuff like that.” The participant who preferred to be known by the code name, YuGi-Oh, actually preferred using computers rather than watching television, but more time was spent watching television because of the lack of computers in his home.


Another male GK-12 participant added: I just saw a movie.. .Hell Boy, who is a super hero.. .he and the other super heroes use slimy monsters that this other man has created and he killed all of them to save the world.. .but they had acid in them and the acid burned the man’s arm. Then at the end of the movie.. .the man’s arm was stolen.. .he broke off his horns because they grew when the moon turned red. Everything was red! He got real evil when the moon turned red.. .he was a policeman that worked for the government. But he acted like a scientist because he created monsters. A female GK-12 participant observed the following: I saw the Frankenstein movie.. .that movie is so scary. I wouldn’t want to be a scientist like that who creates evil people. In the Incredible Hulk.. .his father was a scientist. His father was a bad scientist because he made the Hulk drink something that messed up his system when he was a baby and it made him turn into the Hulk. This participant believed, however, that “some scientists are good because they help people who are sick and ill...and sometimes scientists are bad.” More than half of the participants in both groups had seen the movie Frankenstein, which, according to Turney (1998), has become one of the most important in our culture’s discussion of science and technology. Additionally, the polysemic image of the fantastic scientist is also reflected in media portrayals of SET workers when the theme of technology is prevalent.


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A female GK-12 participant observed the following: Jimmy Neutron is a scientist who really loves technology, too. He always comes up with good experiments and sometimes they mess up on him and he finds a way to change it back. He made a floating car.. .a dog that can tell him stuff.. .a dog with x-ray vision. He made a hairdresser thing where he goes in a bathroom and brushes his teeth. He made a robot do things for him.. .like in [the movie] I, Robot. Now.. .that was a good movie. That’s going to really happen one day. In a way, its kinda scary. The Powerpuffgirls are robots in a way. They were made by a professor in the show who is a scientist. He’s funny. When it first came on, he mixed them up with chemicals and made them. Now, they fight crime and they always get people locked up.. .they always save the day. Another female GK-12 female participant commenting on Jimmy Neutron’s technological prowess added, “Jimmy Neutron has a whole bunch of science tricks that are fun. He’s White, has a big head and brown hair that looks like an ice cream cone. He always wears a red shirt with the sign of a nucleus on it. I watch it everyday.” Upon asking participant if she could envision hip-hop, rhythm and blues singer, Usher, as a scientist she replied: Yes, I could see Usher as a scientist. He would be the ‘dancing scientist.’ If Usher does a television show, I would like him to teach science while he dances. He can mix the chemicals with his hands and create things as he dances with the potion bottles. When he goes to his table in the lab, he could do the moonwalk.. .holding the potion bottles. A real dancing scientist. A lot of my classmates would really learn a lot of science then I bet.


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This respondent who played video games such as, Grand Theft Auto, Vice City, SpongeBob, regularly also enjoyed playing the video games, D ef Jam and Resident Evil. In Resident Evil, the main character, Dr. Ashford is a scientist who is the creator of the mutating T-virus. This participant further commented: The girl in Resident Evil is a scientist. Her name is Laura. One day she helped a professor.. .they brought back people from the dead and they blew up the town.. .it was really great. I don’t think that female scientists really could be that evil, though. Especially black ones. But that game does make me kinda think about science. It’s like a movie.. .but it’s a cartoon. They show what happened as she messes with the dead people and as she mixes potions and stuff. Van Evra (2004) noted that although computer and video games offered opportunities for observational learning as television does, video games add an “interactive dimension that may intensify their impact” (p. 21). However, girls showed lower arousal and effect relative to boys, which probably accounted for this participants’ perceptions that female scientists could not be as evil as portrayed in the video game, Resident Evil. Again, it is not known what the long-term effects of interactivity with the female scientists in Resident Evil could have on the participants’ identification with Laura, the scientist. This participant also indicated an interest in “scary” movies, having watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre several times. She concluded the interview by stating: I like to watch real funny movies, too. Like Class Reunion. It tells you what goes on in the world.. .it’s like a play. It tells you what the goals are in the world or how you don’t let your man beat on you when you get married, like he did in the


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movie Enough.. .with Jennifer Lopez. The interest in “scary” movies by this participant somewhat supports Lovecraft ‘s (1975), cited in Van Evra (2004), contention that the “criterion of the fantastic is not situated within the artistic work but in the reader’s individual experience—and this experience must be fear” (p. 34). Again, this idea suggests the same emotion of fear would also be experienced with viewers of television and film-related media as well as with readers of a text. Another sampling of quotes from various study participants, who reported viewing portrayals of SET workers as performing events not likely to occur in everyday life, further supports this overall theme, of the fantastic image of the scientist. Some interviewees noted movies such as Undercover Brother. One stated, “Smart Brother” is the scientist in the movie. He studies Black people.. .the things they do.. .how they act. He works on computers.” The Day After Tomorrow was another film mentioned. A female CHROME respondent said: It had a black scientist.. .one that studied the climate all over the world, but he was married to a white woman.. .there were a lot of other scientists in this movie, from NASA. Anyway, the lead scientist in the movie tried to tell the President of the United States we were about to have another ice age, but no one believed him until it was too late. There were only a few people who lived in New York, including a Black homeless man and his dog. That was kinda funny. I often wonder if something like that could happen during my lifetime and I think it can.


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Also, Danny’s parents in Danny Phantom are scientists. They create objects to catch ghosts, but they’re good scientists. There were other examples of participants ’ quotes reflecting the polysemous image of the fantastic as scientist. The movie, Austin Powers was discussed, for example. This film prompted the following remark by a female GK-12 grade participant: The scientist in the movie tried to make a big drill that would go deep inside the earth and into the core and then it would blow up every volcano in the world. I don’t think that scientists are like that.. .but he was just trying to take over the world, but all he did was make a disaster. In the case of Spiderman II, a male CHROME participant commented on Spiderman’s extraordinary scientific abilities: “There’s a lot of cool science in Spiderman 2. Spiderman was a genius in high school science and Dr. Octopus, the scientist-tumedmonster wants to get rid of Spiderman and take over the world.” Likewise, in discussing Mega Man, the video game and movie, a male CHROME participant enthusiastically described his experience of living in this hero’s world as he commented: .. .the scientists are trying to make hamsters switch into a person’s body. Mega Man’s world is a net. His dad is working on a chip.. .something called a crossfusion chip. It’s when you have a net navi. Mega Man is a net navi. A net navi is a computer thing and they’re inside the computer world. But if you use the cross fusion chip you can become your own net navi. Once his lab was invaded by other net navis who had already come out. He tried the cross-fusion chip on them and he and Mega Man were fused together. Since they were fused together they had no battle chips. Battle chips are things that you put in.. .they’re like a mega


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buster. But since you can’t use battle chips, you would have to use the only thing that the Mega Man has.. .a mega-blaster. This show really makes me want to be a scientist... so I can create things. In sum, the polysemous images of the fantastic as scientist, as portrayed in the media content mentioned by the respondents, lead a life full of dangers and certain characters may evaporate at any moment. Again, based on the responses of children in this study, it appeared they identified with not only African American characters or roles that were frequently and recently seen in television and film content, but they also appeared to identify with media portrayals of science, engineering or technology workers roles that reflected the fantastic aspect of science, engineering, and technology fields. Todorov (1973) said of such persons who are able to experience the fantastic event: they must opt for one of two possible solutions.. .either he is the victim of an illusion of the senses, or a product of the imagination—and laws of the world then remain what they are; or else the event has indeed taken place, it is an integral part of reality.. .but this reality is controlled by laws unknown to us. (p. 25). Many of the participants in this study appeared to affirm the latter of Todorov’s proposition—reflecting very little “interpersonal mistrust” toward the more mysterious nature of the scientific fields and scientists, engineers, and technology workers while identifying with the image of the fantastic as scientist, making it an integral part of their reality.


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Perceived Realism o f the Ambiguity o f SET Workers ’ Characters or Roles by Study Participants: The Altruistic Scientist The other side of the ambiguous nature of the fantastic as scientist is that of the altruistic scientist. The “altruistic scientist” is a theme that captures a great deal of what participants stated in the interviews in response to questioning aimed at determining the extent to which they identified with SET depictions in television and film content.. .particularly depictions of African Americans in these roles. Most study participants stated they had seen African Americans infrequently in media portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers. The participant’s responses in this study also suggest the image of the altruistic scientist is much less often seen than the fantastic as scientist, regardless of whether an African American is in the SET role. While such images may be less available, when compared to the myriad images of the fantastic as scientist, it must be noted that some study participants included the altruistic scientist in their drawings during the Draw-A-Scientist portion of the study. Among the television programs that participants thought displayed the more positive nature of science and SET workers were Kim Possible (“it’s a cartoon and Kim is in middle school and helps everyone with their science. Her dad is a scientist, her mama’s a scientist, her grandma is one and she [Kim] is planning on becoming a scientist too”) and Cyber Chase (“it’s a cartoon that shows a lot of different people of different races teaching math.. .1 watch it everyday. They do a lot of things that we do in our [math] class. Sometimes I try and figure out the things that they do. It comes on Channel 15—WHRO. I would like to see more television programs like that, or Zoom”). Many of the participants watched the PBS program Zoom everyday and suggested an identification


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with the young scientists on the show. A female CHROME participant stated, “they show kids like me working with science in fun ways. I like it and I do some of the experiments. Like one time they tried to make a bridge that was strong. But the first time they did it, it became weak and wouldn’t hold anything, so they conducted experiments in order to build the bridge stronger.” A few of the participants cited Bill Nye, the Science Guy, Dexter’s Laboratory, and Smart Guy as favorite shows highlighting the intricacies of science. A GK-12 participant spoke of one of his favorite movies, Spy Kids 2, The Game Is Over in the following way: It comes with 3-D glasses. [The Spy Kids] help save the world because in the movie this man had made a game called ‘game over’ and once they got to level 5, he would try and manage the world. They gave him 12 hours to manage it. Every time the world failed, he lost 8 hours. And it went down to 4 hours. It has a lot of math in it that you have to figure out, but I make A’s in math, so that’s not hard to do. In sum, some of the findings from this study suggest 5th grade African American participants’ images of SET workers have tended to refute the standard image of the mythical modem scientist frequently portrayed on television and in film-related media in the past Instead, the images of the SET worker portrayed by the participants in this study reflect a different kind of practitioner, representing diversity within all of the scientific disciplines.


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Perceptions o f Math and Science Courses and Careers by Study Participants The third research question to be considered in the current research was, how are 5th grade African American student perceptions of math and science courses and careers in the scientific disciplines being influenced by portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers in television and film content they have frequently and recently reviewed. The majority of the respondents in this study stated they would consider their math and science courses to be “fun” if they were exposed to more character portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers on television and in film-related media, especially if the characters portrayed “looked like them.” Most considered the PBS television program ZOOM! fun and entertaining, and expressed the desire to see more programs like it. A few respondents also indicated they enjoyed viewing Bill Nye, the Science Guy, shown on videos in some of the math/science classrooms. A majority of the respondents who had favorable attitudes toward media portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers also have favorable perceptions toward math and science courses, the collective interviews suggest. The respondents were asked that, if they saw more scientists, engineers, and technology workers in television and in film content that “looked like them,” would they like math and science courses at school more than they do now. Among these 5th grade African American students, this seemed to be the case in some instances more than others. GK-12 respondents commented, “Pm good in certain parts of science... like matter. I like it because you get to learn about molecules.” Another GK-12 respondent added, “I love math and science. Math, mainly because I like to count money and stuff. I really love my


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math class and I like science, when we do experiments.” A sampling of quotes from other GK-12 participants include, “when I watch Zoom, it makes me like science more. I am good in science at school, and if I saw more shows like Zoom on television, I’d be better with science. I get B’s in science. Sometimes I will get an A.” Another GK-12 study participant echoed, “when I look at Jimmy Neutron it makes me like math and science a little more.” One GK-12 participant who selected Kim Possible as one of her favorite shows depicting science topics stated, “Kim Possible makes me think about science more. Makes me think I can do science things like I see on the show too. I like science. I always get A’s in science.” Another GK-12 respondent offered regarding her favorite Disney movie, “if I saw more movies like Lilo and Stitch I think I’d be more interested in science, because it shows about outer space and DNA. The scientist that made Stitch is called Jamba.. .if he dropped him in the water, he and others like him would come out of the little boat’s circle ball and would destroy the world.” On the other hand, CHROME respondents appeared to favor math and science courses more because of their participation in after-school CHROME clubs once a month. Some respondents had participated in CHROME Clubs for over 2 years. One participant replied, I love everything about math now. I love algebra, and when I get into 6th grade, I’ll take pre-algebra. I like science too because o f the experiments. So it

would be neat to see people doing those things like experiments on television, too; especially if they looked like me.


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Another CHROME female respondent added, “maybe...but I like them anyway.. .it would be more interesting.. .yes, definitely.” Similarly, one respondent answered, “No, not really...I like to study math and science and I like math and science. I get B’s in both.. .so it really doesn’t matter. I guess it would be a bit more entertaining though.” A majority of the CHROME participants that viewed themselves as smart provided the following remarks attesting to their cognitive expertise, “Yep. It sure would. I am smart like Spiderman in math and in science. I make B’s. Seeing more on TV and in the movies would make me think about math and science more and the things you can do with it.” Another said, “probably not, because I’m already smart in math and science. I like it because they’re challenging and because science answers a lot of questions.” A GK-12 respondent attributed her love of math to her GK-12 Fellow/Teacher stating, “I like math because our teacher’s name is Miss Robin.. .she teaches well and does a lot of fun activities with math as well.. .we always do science experiments.” Another student commented on the GK-12 Fellow-Teacher, “Miss Robin is different than a lot of other teachers because she has fun, with kids and does activities.. .some teachers just don’t know because they’ll like get up at 8 and just put stuff on the board.” The majority of GK-12 respondents stated their GK-12 Fellow greatly influenced and motivated them as far as liking and understanding math and science more. For most, the GK-12 Fellow was the first scientist or engineer that they were exposed to personally. Conclusion The findings of this study indicate that although one of the two groups of this study attended schools located in Empowerment Zones and had, prior to this past year,


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minimal exposure to role models of scientists, engineers, and technology workers in their lived and mediated experiences, the students nevertheless have constructed their meaning of what a scientist or engineer looks like based primarily upon the media portrayals of SET workers to which they had been exposed. At the same time, while only one or two in this group have ever considered careers as scientists or engineers, it seems apparent that NSF-sponsored programs such as the GK-12 program have commendable merit in inspiring the next generation of scientists. The other group represented in this study, CHROME, also contained students that had been influenced somewhat by portrayals of SET workers in television and filmrelated media. However, CHROME’s on-going math and science activities and monthly meetings providing role models of successful scientists and engineers as speakers, seemed, to some extent and in the case of some of the children, to overshadow the influence of television and film-related media viewing of content as it relates to these children’s perceptions of SET roles, careers, and related coursework. Chapter 5 provides further discussion of findings of the study, conclusions based on those findings, and implications for media producers, educators, and government organizations. It also offers recommendations for future research.


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Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusions, Implications and Recommendations for Future Research “Until our scientific and technological workplace reflects our diversity, we are not working to our potential as a nation” Constance A. Morelia Member, U.S. House of Representatives 8thDistrict, Maryland

Chapter 4 provided the results of the media use questionnaire, in-depth, qualitative research interviews, and the Draw-A-Scientist-Test (Underrepresented Minorities prompt) with 5th grade African American participants in this study representing the two cohorts, CHROME and the GK-12 program, currently at Old Dominion University (ODU). In this chapter, a discussion of the findings of the media use questionnaire, in-depth interviews organized according to the guiding research questions of the study, and the Draw-A-Scientist-Test Underrepresented Minority (URM) prompt has been presented. Conclusions based on the findings of the study, according to major themes that have emerged, and implications for educators, media creators, producers, and writers, and government organizations and agencies, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, and others have also been presented. Theoretical implications based on the findings and conclusions of the study have been discussed along with recommendations for future scholarly research related to the study. As previously stated in Chapter 1 and Chapter 4, the overall purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the ways television and film-related media portrayals of science, engineering, and technology (SET) fields and their practitioners have influenced a group of 5th grade African American students and the perceptions they have formulated regarding SET fields, roles within them, and courses in science and mathematics they would take to prepare for careers in these fields.


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The impetus for this study was to further explore the National Science Foundation’s (NSF, 2000) assertion that the public image of scientists, engineers, and technology workers has often been both inaccurate and derogatory and that women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities have not been adequately portrayed by the media as participating in SET careers. A purposive sample of African American pre-middle school students was selected to qualitatively confirm or disconfirm the NSF’s assertion. Nineteen 5th grade African American students, representing the National Science Foundation’s GK-12 program at ODU, attended three public schools located in federally-designated Empowerment Zones in Portsmouth, Virginia. Fifteen study participants are members of CHROME (Cooperating Hampton Roads Organizations for Minorities in Engineering), a 22 year-old non-profit organization, involved in monthly after-school math and science clubs at participating Hampton Roads schools. CHROME participants represented two public schools located in non-Empowerment Zone schools in Hampton, Virginia. Selecting pre-middle school African American students was done, in part, because scholarly studies that have concentrated primarily on African American youth perceptions of media portrayals of SET workers and careers and the relationship their perceptions may have on their pursuit of SET careers have been non-existent. As stated in Chapter 2, two bodies of literature, cultivation analysis (Gerbner, 1978; 1980; Morgan & Signorielli, 1990; Entman & Rojecki, 2001, Van Evra, 2004) and the construction of social reality, originally conceptualized by Berger and Luckmann (1967) and later expanded by Adoni and Mane (1984), reflect the primary theoretical perspectives through which this particular study is framed.


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Although the results of the study revealed a diversity of opinions, attitudes, and perceptions of SET fields, roles, careers and coursework, it appeared that 5th grade African American children in both groups generally may be more amenable, if encouraged, to pursuing SET careers than was reported in previous literature on the subject in Chapter 1. The findings also suggest that, regardless of specific perceptions of SET fields, roles, careers, and coursework, television and film portrayals of SET fields and roles often played some part in shaping these perceptions. Additional discussion of the findings of this study is presented in the following section. Discussion Discussion in regard to the findings of the media use questionnaire, in-depth interviews organized according to the three primary research questions that guided this study, and the Draw-A-Scientist Test (Underrepresented Minority [URM]-Prompt) have been provided in the following sections. Media Use Questionnaire Overall, the media use questionnaire was used to gain insight into how television and film-related media content influenced study participants’ beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions, and to assess whether such influence was of equal importance to other influences (e.g., family, friends, teachers, school counselors) or to other media sources (e.g., books, newspapers, or magazines). In this study, 32 out of 34 respondents from both cohorts (GK-12 and CHROME) indicated daily television use. An interesting observation was that all respondents had access to and watched programming on cable television channels, with only a few citing


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daily viewing of shows appearing on broadcast television. The literature has reported that more interpersonal distrust associated with higher exposure to channels on broadcast television but much less mistrust and less fear of crime with greater exposure to more specialized cable channels (Perse, Ferguson and McLeod (1994, cited in Van Evra, 2004). Perse et al. suggested cable may pull away from dominant themes found in programming offered by television networks or may offer other themes that are “reassuring or that increase perceptions of self-efficacy” (p. 10). This finding suggests programming involving African Americans in the roles of scientists, engineers, or technology workers may be most suited for broadcast on the cable network The media use questionnaire findings tended to support Gerbner and Linson’s (1999) contention that television does affect the choices CHROME and GK-12 study participants make in life, including the careers they choose, and that frequent users of television adopt a view of reality that corresponds with the description of reality presented in television and other film-related media (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1993; Gerbner, 2003). As stated in Chapter 4, the top three careers selected most often by NSF’s GK-12 participants, who had been exposed for one year to science and engineering university Fellow Graduates that worked with GK-12 Fellow Teachers in presenting innovative math and science concepts to the 5th grade participants, were (1) Lawyer, (2) Doctor and Teacher (tied in 2nd place), and (3) Police Officer. On the other hand, the top three careers selected by CHROME participants, members of after-school CHROME clubs that provided monthly math and science hands-on enrichment activities, were Scientist, Teacher, and Engineer. While both groups watch television daily and are thereby


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presumed to be moderate to heavy viewers of television, more than half of the CHROME participants indicated the use of the Internet, books, family members, teachers, and the public library as major sources of career information. Less than half of the CHROME participants stated they would use the television, the school library or consult friends and school counselors as sources of career information. These findings might suggest that students who are exposed to more role models of scientists, engineers, or technology workers through intervention programs such as CHROME, may not consider sources such as television, film or other related media to be viable sources of career information. However, more than half of the GK-12 participants indicated television as a source of career information, with the school, public libraries, and school counselors following closely behind television as sources of career information. This suggests that television tends to have somewhat of a greater influence in Empowerment Zone communities where most of the GK-12 participants reside, and supports the Kaiser Foundation Family Report’s (1999,2005) contention that media use increases as household resources decline. However, it must be noted that some of the GK-12 participants indicated career choices as Pediatrician (2), Archaeologist (1), and Archltect-Engineer (1) while some of the CHROME participants indicated career choices as Skateboarder (1) Rapper (1) and Singer (1). In other words, stated career aspirations varied quite a lot, regardless of the particular group or program these children participated in. Thus, these findings suggest that exposure or non-exposure to role models or media portrayals in SET fields in the lived experiences of participants may not always be an indicator of career selection by a specific group or population.


A surprising finding was that many of the celebrities or heroes that participants in both groups indicated they admired or identified with the most were mythic characters such as Sponge Bob Square Pants, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Jimmy Neutron. Rappers also were listed quite often, as were Raven Simone, Beyonce, and other primarily African American television actors and singers. The identification many of the children in this study seemed to have with African American celebrities further substantiated the importance of broadcast or cable networks presentation of more African Americans as scientists, engineers, and technology workers in television and film-related media content. At the same time, it appears that mythic characters also may be used to inspire and encourage some children in this group toward SET careers. Additionally, media use questionnaire findings tended to support research based on cultivation theory (Byrne, 2000; Bemt, Bemt, & Turner, 2003) that has suggested that children gain knowledge about the workplace from the stereotyped images they view on television, especially if they are heavy viewers. The following sections present a discussion of the in-depth interview findings organized according to the three primary research questions that guided this study. In-Depth Interviews Based on the in-depth interviews with children in both of the study groups, it appears that television viewing and the nature of television content has played a somewhat important part in shaping the perceptions the study participants had of SET workers and careers and the extent to which they may or may not envision themselves as participants in SET careers in the future.


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Overall, the majority of respondents stated they had viewed a considerable number of portrayals of SET workers who are White or “other” (represented in cartoons where ethnicity is not explicit) on the Disney, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Discovery Channels. However, although they indicated they had viewed few Black SET workers on television or in film-related media content, when prompted by the interviewer with questions such as, “Have you seen the Nutty Professor or Dr. Doolittle? ”, respondents remembered that they had. However, there were not many films or television programs with African American characters in SET roles that participants could recall beyond these two films. The remainder of this section presents a discussion of specific findings in light of the primary research questions that have guided this study. Insight into the World o f Workfrom Television and Film-Related Media Content. Study participants in both groups revealed they receive considerable insight into the world of work from television and film-related media content. This was particularly true as it pertains to the world of work of scientists, engineers, and technology workers. The results of the study seemed to indicate that they frequently use television to search for information about how to lead their lives and actively search for role models they would most like to emulate. Initially, when questioned about their favorite celebrities or heroes, most named popular singers, actors, and athletes. However, when questioned about their viewing of scientists, engineers, and technology workers on television and in film-related media content, they typically were able to think about and describe their favorite shows that featured scientists or engineers. It should be noted, however, that the interviewees


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typically first stated that they did not see many scientists and engineers on television or in the movies. As previously indicated, few participants in the study had viewed television or film portrayals of African Americans in science, engineering, or technology occupations. Some children had seen depictions of African American scientists and engineers in relatively few recent films such as the Nutty Professor, Undercover Brother, and Something the Lord Made. Half of the participants revealed knowledge gleaned about the world of work from video game movies. For example, one participant not only witnessed hundreds of scientists who had mutated into flesh-eating creatures after a laboratory accident in Resident Evil, but was also given the extra pleasure of having the opportunity to interact with the scientists, to think like the scientists, and to participate in the chaoticallyfrenzied world of....evil. Of course, the participant was stimulated, thought that being a scientist was “fun,” but didn’t quite seem to understand the depths of the evil that was actually produced by the hands of these scientists. In light of responses from individual interviewees such as this in this study and the reported recent shootings by children under the age of 15 who have been motivated by interacting with video games like Grand Theft Auto, and websites that produce violent streaming videos and all kinds of animated fanfare, one must be concerned regarding the degree to which such children are slowly becoming desensitized by the “precession of simulacra”(Baudrillard, 1994, p. 1) they are inundated with on a daily basis. Another introduction to the world of work (or non-work) for a male CHROME study participant was Mega Man, the video game/movie the participant had interacted


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and learned from. The participant was first introduced to the fact that Mega Man was not a ‘real’ being, instead he was the independent virtual avatar of the main character Lan. Mega Man belongs to the world of ‘thinking beings’ and is able to move around the electronic world freely. A world of “thinking beings” may perhaps suggest to a child that the body is indispensable. It has no meaning, so why does one need a body. Again, the depth of critical thinking skills that are developed by these young minds as they interact with these video games and as they walk into the theaters to view the characters they have also recently interacted with, is an impetus for fusing the ‘real’ with the ‘image’.. .or the ‘image’ with the ‘real.’ Thus, the simulated stars of the video games being no longer ‘real’ become in actuality models of reality, of worlds gone astray while preteens seek “virtual saviours” to appear and restore peace and order to the world, as one participant excitedly described the storyline of Mega Man during the in-depth interview process. What these pre-middle school study participants are learning from the emerging genre of video game movies are the patterns, the ways, the framework of the ambiguous scientist (evil and altruistic) who often prevails in most video game series. Consequently, what the participants have also learned about the world of work from the video game movies is that the world of work has all but disappeared. A simulated image reflects a world “more real than the real or the hyperreal by which the real is eventually abolished” (Baudrillard, 1994, p. 7). Ironically, these video game movies continuously portray worlds where it is necessary to interact with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The findings based on the interviews again seem to strongly support a basic premise of this study that was presented in Chapter 1. This was that fictional


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representations in television and film content viewed by children often influence their thinking and behavior, and that the children’s perceptions of science and technology ultimately are at least partly shaped by the images they are exposed to outside the confines of the school room. While some types of images, even those that are questionable or unrealistic, may stir some interest in SET careers and roles, a need appears to exist for more portrayals that help children develop realistic perceptions and enthusiasm for these careers and roles. In addition, the limited number of depictions of African Americans in these careers and roles in television and films still may curb African American children's interest in such careers and roles. This is discussed more in the next section. Identification with African American Characters in Television and Film Content in SET Roles. Participants in both groups identified with, and viewed regularly, predominantly African American character portrayals in television and film-related content. This finding somewhat supports Brown, Steele, and Walsh-Childers’ (2002) media practice model that asserted developing identity is a big factor in the media choices pre-teens make, interact with, and apply in their lives. In Chapters 1 and 2, a review of the literature proposed that there was a glaring absence of African Americans in both fictional and non-fictional media treatments of SET roles. In addition, it was noted that African Americans also were often missing in real life SET roles and settings. Again, most study participants had viewed SET workers in popular and educational media content, mostly on cable networks. However, they also indicated they


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would be more likely to consider careers within scientific disciplines if they saw more African American portrayals of SET workers in television, film, and other media. The majority of the 5th grade children in the study believed that the omission of African American portrayals of SET workers is because some people do not believe African Americans are smart enough to become scientists or engineers or that they like science. For example, one female CHROME participant stated, “I think they think white people know more than black people.” A male GK-12 respondent commented, “I would like to see more black people on TV who are scientists and engineers.. .if I saw more that would make me feel better about becoming a scientist or engineer.. .because people always telling me that black people can’t do nothing and stuff like that which I tell them that black people can do anything they put their mind to do.” This suggests that it is the absence of media portrayals of African Americans as scientists, engineers, and technology workers more than the inaccurate or derogatory depictions of the SET worker that could be inhibiting African American youth from pursuing SET careers: This relative absence of media portrayals of African Americans as SET workers could be an important factor in shaping the self-concept and behavior of African American youth, both those that participated in this study and other children they may represent, toward SET careers. While the majority of respondents indicated the desire to see more Blacks in roles of scientists, engineers, and technology workers on television, most also indicated the desire to see more scientists and engineers on television in general. It must be noted, however, that there were some participants in the study that appeared to be interested in SET careers and roles, despite the very limited number of


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African Americans they had seen in media portrayals of SET fields and workers. Some were influenced by factors other than media in this respect (e.g. parents, teachers, the CHROME program's emphasis on math and science). In addition, the overall self-concept of most of the participants in the study was somewhat positive, based upon their perceptions of themselves as scientists or engineers that were revealed in the DAST-URM drawings component of the study. Identification with SET Workers ’ Roles in Television and Film-Related Media Content. As discussed in Chapter 4, the image of the SET worker that participants most identified with was that of the SET as fantastical—magical, eccentric, mythological, sometimes ominously dangerous, and sometimes leaning toward the supernatural that gives credence to pseudoscience. The image of the altruistic scientist is also one that participants identified with quite often. In this category, for example, is the forensic scientist as viewed on the television program CSI. A few of the interviewees seemed to have been made aware of what a scientist does by watching this program. One GK-12 participant even drew herself as a forensic scientist.. .complete with a cadaver in a coffin! Although there are inaccurate and derogatory images of SET workers on television and in film-related media content as NSF (2000) has asserted, the image of the scientist that these African American 5th grade students in this study appeared to have the most is somewhat ambiguous. For example, some of the same participants that drew pictures of a scientist as a discoverer of a cure for cancer were also attracted to the “dark” side of the scientist, preferring to view images of the scientist that revealed an


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otherworldly [italics mine] nature. More of the findings of the Draw-A-Scientist-Test (URM) prompt are discussed later in this chapter. Again, the consistency of ambiguity in how the study participants identified with character portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers would tend to suggest that the study participants, while learning a lot about the world of work from television and film-related media, have not adequately learned exactly what the scientist, engineer, or technology worker do in their occupations and are merely reporting stereotypes of what they believe a scientist or engineer should be doing. Furthermore, although only a few participants clearly aspired to become scientists or engineers, it became evident, as stated previously, that simply asking students about the media portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers that they have viewed on television or in the movies was enough to get the participants to think about SET careers. This suggests that using positive media portrayals of SET fields and workers, even fictional presentations, in conjunction with educational efforts to encourage interest in these careers, roles, and related coursework may be fruitful. It should be noted that although there were exceptions, most of the children that participated in this study did not have active role models in science or engineering in the home or in the community. Perceptions o f Math and Science Courses. Results of this study are somewhat confirmatory of the previous literature (Greenberg, 1972; Graves, 1980, 1982; Stroman, 1986,1991; Asamen, 1993; Holtzman, 2000; Berry & Asamen, 2001; Entman & Rojecki, 2001) that has contended that sometimes children’s perceptions are being influenced by what they see on television and


in film-related media content, but it was not readily evident that students’ general attitudes about math or science classes at school have been influenced by SET media portrayals they had or had not seen. The majority of the study participants seemed to indicate they liked math and science courses. In fact, some were even quite boastful of their math and science grades. Most stated they made A’s and B’s. A few participants admitted to a “C” now and then. Moreover, it is important to note that nearly all of the African American participants indicated they would enjoy their math and science courses more if they saw more African American media portrayals of SET fields and workers on television or in the movies. It should be noted, however, that some of the study participants were part of a program (i.e. CHROME) designed to encourage interest in math and science. Generally it appears that such a program may have a positive influence in this respect. Television programs like ZOOM and CyberChase, both PBS shows, also seemed to be positive influences on students in the study who were already good students in math and science courses. Participants also mentioned enjoying segments of Raven and Lizzie McGuire that had the leading characters execute science experiments for school, although these characters were not SET workers per se. Most also said they would like their math and science courses more if they saw more SET workers, Black or White, “doing scientific” experiments on television. Highly revealing was the previously discussed general finding that the majority of Black students that participated in the study believed the reason they did not see more Blacks in portrayals of SET workers on television and in the movies was because White producers and directors “don’t think Blacks can become scientists or engineers.” It might be


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inferred that perceptions such as these may be connected to their perceptions of math and science coursework in school as well. Regarding perceptions of math and science courses influenced by media portrayals of SET fields and practitioners according to gender, the findings of this study revealed that African American 5th grade girls were as interested in their math and science classes as were African American boys. According to Campbell and Storo (1994, p. 5), several myths have emerged from the gender equity literature such as: 1. It is not necessary to look at the interaction of gender and race when dealing with girls in math and science. 2. If something applies to white girls it also applies to African American and Hispanic girls. 3. If something applies to African American boys, it also applies to African American girls. This finding should encourage organizations and agencies to conduct more gender equity research that disaggregates the data according to the intersection of gender and racial data. These findings also suggest that more studies on differences within groups, such as the difference between African American students in schools located in Empowerment Zones (an indicator of high-poverty school systems) and African American students in non-Empowerment Zones (an indicator of low-poverty school systems) should be conducted. Draw-A-Scientist Test (URM) Findings The drawings by the study participants represented Berger and Luckmann’s (1967) process of “legitimation,” in which new meanings are produced that serve to


integrate the meanings already attached to “disparate institutional processes” (p. 92). Furthermore, legitimation is the process of “explaining and justifying” (p. 93). As discussed in Chapters 2 and 3, Draw-A-Scientist tests performed in the past 48 years, beginning with Mead and Metraux (1957), typically have used White subjects, for the most part, to draw their perceptions of the scientist. Furthermore, more recent findings (Barman, 1999) have indicated students at each grade level tend to view scientists as White males who work in a laboratory. These findings could possibly be attributed to the fact that few minorities have been used in the studies and the data has not been disaggregated for the few that have participated in DAST studies. The consequence of such an omission is that fewer new meanings of the subject have been produced than could be integrated with the meanings already attached to the perceptions of scientists and engineers held primarily by White students. As stated in Chapter 3, participants in this study were requested to: (a) draw a picture of what they thought a scientist or engineer looked like; and, (b) draw a picture of themselves as a scientist or engineer, based upon how they do science in their classrooms. The first question was phrased this way because Symington and Spurling (1990) pointed out in their study that students seemed to be drawing what they perceived to be the public stereotype of a scientist, and not necessarily their own perception of a scientist. The second question was asked to assess in what ways the participant perceived himself or herself as “doing” science in school. Because many African American participants in this study perceived the scientist, engineer, and technology worker differently than in previous DAST models (Mead & Metraux, 1957; Chambers, 1983; Fort & Varney, 1989; Finson, Beaver, & Cramond,


1995; Rahm & Charbonneau, 1997; Symington & Spurling, 1990; Barman, 1997,1999), five additional indicators reflecting stereotypes of the scientist or engineer (based upon study participants’ drawings) were included for analysis. The five indicators that have been added to the synthesized Chambers-Barman-Symington and Spurling model comprise the DAST-URM prompt for this study and are listed in Tables 2 and 3. They are: (a) Scientist is non-traditional in appearance; (b) Scientist is African American, mixed race or other underrepresented minority; (c) female gender only; (d) scientist is working outdoors; and, (e) scientist represents fictional character in television or filmrelated media. The words, “signifying the fantastic” have been added to the “scientist has mythic stereotypes” indicator of Barman’s (1997) model. The DAST-URM prompt uses a more culturally sensitive approach of describing perceptions and attitudes of underrepresented minorities toward images of scientists and engineers in television and film-related media. Additionally, Tables 2 and 3 in Chapter 4 were assembled to list 30 indicators of the scientist or engineer and were modeled after Chamber’s (1983) DAST-C prompt which included 7 indicators,1 an adapted version of the DAST-C prompt created by Barman (1999) that included 7 additional indicators,2 and Symington and Spurling’s

1 Chambers’ indicators are: (1) Lab coat (usually but not necessarily white), (2) eyeglasses, (3) facial growth o f hair (including beards, mustaches, or abnormally long sideburns), (4) sym bols o f research: scientific instruments and laboratory equipment o f any kind, (5) symbols o f knowledge: principally books and filing cabinets; (6) Technology: the products o f science, and (7) Relevant captions: formulae, taxonom ic classification, the “eureka” ! syndrome, etc. (Chambers, 1987, p. 258). 2 Barman’s additional indicators are: (1 ) male gender only; (2) C aucasians) only; (3) Scientist is m iddleaged or elderly; (4) Scientist has mythic stereotypes (e.g., Frankenstein creatures, etc.); (5) Indications o f secrecy; (6) Scientist working in laboratory;, and (7) Indications o f danger. (Barman, 1999, p. 18).


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(1990) DAST-R prompt which included 11 indicators3. Drawings that included one of the 30 indicators were tallied for each participant. Tables 4 and 5 in Chapter 4 were assembled to list 22 indicators of the scientist or engineer that were drawn by study participants and were likewise modeled after the DAST tests mentioned previously. However, there are 8 indicators that are not included in Tables 4 and 5 that were included in Tables 2 and 3. Indicators not included are: (a) scientist with facial hair (b) male gender only (c) female gender only (d) Caucasian only (e) African American/Mixed Race or other underrepresented (URM) only (f) scientist is non-traditional in appearance (g) scientist is middle-aged or elderly (h) scientist represents fictional character in television, film, or related media. Because the participants were asked to draw how they perceived themselves as scientists, the above referenced 8 indicators are not listed because it was presumed that children would not have facial hair, would only draw the gender they represented, would only draw the race they represented, would not consider themselves as “non-traditional” in appearance, would not draw themselves as middle-aged or elderly, and would not draw themselves as a fictional character in television or film. Again, most participants featured lab coats, glasses, and working in a lab as characteristic of themselves as scientists. As in previous DAST research (Chambers, 1983; Symington & Spurling, 1990; Finson, Beaver, & Cramond, 1995; Barman, 1997,1999), African American children in this study tended to characterize scientists in the pictures they drew as wearing lab coats, symbols of research, symbols of knowledge, and scientists working in labs. A few of the 3 Symington and Spurling’s indicators are: (1) Scientist enjoys or is engrossed in science; (2) doing something with a socially useful purpose; (3) consideration o f safety; (4) one person is working with another; (5) engaged in a scientific activity; (6) engaged in scientific inquiry; (7) measurement or data collection; (8) hypotheses evident; (9) repeated trials evident; (10) controlling variables evident; (11) discovery.


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drawings included no indicators of a scientist or engineer and were not included in the tally. However, while in most previous research, students at all grade levels tended to view scientists as White males, African American girls in this study tended to draw mostly African American female scientists or engineers. Likewise, African American boys tended to draw African American male scientists or engineers. Participants in this study also tended to draw more scientists with mythic stereotypes of the fantastic as scientist and scientists who were non-traditional in appearance, although most scientists were viewed as having socially useful purposes. Scientists also tended to represent more fictional characters in television. An important difference in this study that was highlighted between the two groups of students in the study was that the GK-12 group, from the high-poverty school systems, reflected more creativity in their drawings of the scientist and engineer, and considered the “idea” of the scientist and engineer as an entertaining idea, as opposed to the traditional concept of the scientist usually perceived as too intelligent to have any “fun”. The GK-12 group also often peppered their conversations with descriptors of the SET professional that reflected this. As stated earlier, the GK-12 group, exposed to a constructivist paradigm throughout the year, was taught innovative ways of learning math and science from this more student-centered approach. For example, the finding that GK-12 girl participants drew more scientists with mythic stereotypes signifying the Fantastic, drew more scientists that represented a fictional character in television or in the movies, and drew more scientists in non-traditional in appearance should be noted. The GK-12 girl


participants also drew more scientists with traditional stereotypes such as, scientist wearing a lab coat, symbols of research, evidence of scientific activity and scientific inquiry. Most GK-12 boy participants also drew more scientists that represented a fictional character in television or in the movies and drew more characters with mythic stereotypes. GK-12 boy participants also included more of the traditional stereotypes of the scientist highlighted in their drawings. These findings suggest 5th grade GK-12 girls and boys in Empowerment Zone communities may receive more of the traditional stereotypes of the scientist highlighted in their drawings from the fictional characters that are scientists in television or the movies that they view. On the other hand, the CHROME students, exposed to a more traditional, epistemological paradigm of science instruction, as discussed in Chapter 2, seemed more often to be concrete thinkers who did not feel as compelled to seek a more exploratory approach to learning math and science. Most of the girls in the CHROME group felt that scientists enjoyed or were engrossed in science; most included evidence of scientific activity and scientific inquiry in their drawings, measurement/recording or collecting data, hypothesizing or predicting, repeated trials, discovery; and most drew pictures of the scientist as an African American female scientist with a socially useful purpose. Most of the boys in the CHROME group drew scientists wearing a lab coat, surrounded by secrecy, yet revealed little evidence of the scientist actually involved in scientific activity and scientific inquiry in their drawings, measurement/recording or collecting data, hypothesizing or predicting, repeated trials, discovery. These findings appear to suggest that while the CHROME boys may take a more traditional approach to perceiving the


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image of the scientist, CHROME girls appear to have more images of the scientist aligned with the activities of the traditional scientist. Study participants’ responses to the Draw-A-Scientist Test (URM) offered further insights into the perceptions that African American children have of SET workers and fields and their possible involvement with them. For the most part, for example, African American female participants drew African American female scientists or engineers. One GK-12 female participant drew the first African American female deaf scientist, revealing an inherent understanding that persons with disabilities also are an underrepresented minority in America today. The insight of this participant in the DrawA-Scientist Test -Underrepresented Minority (URM) prompt seemed generally to suggest that students in schools within Empowerment Zones, though often having fewer resources in the home and in the schools than in other areas of the city, may generally be more sensitive to the differences in others. Overall, the study participants responses to the Draw-A-Scientist portion of the interview process suggested that 5th grade African American children’s perceptions of SET workers and fields are in many ways similar to what generally has been discovered in previous studies using this research technique. However, the findings in this part of the study also suggest that there are perceptions of SET workers and fields that are unique to this particular group and their media content and other life experiences. Future uses of the DAST-URM may reveal other indicators that may be added to the current list to reflect other specific perceptions of the African American “tween” or teen.


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Factors Influencing African American Children’s Interest in and Involvement in SET Courses and Careers Although this study primarily focused on the extent to which and how television and film portrayals of SET fields and roles shaped the perceptions of African American children (5th graders in this case) about careers, jobs, and coursework related to these fields, the interviews also were intended to yield information generally about the relative influence of other key factors in this respect. It was clear that parents, teachers, and intervention programs and other factors played or could play some role in the participants’ perceptions of SET careers, jobs, and mathematics and science courses or their motivations in pursuing them. Intervention programs such as CHROME and other after-school programs also play an important role in shaping and changing perceptions of the SET workers in underrepresented minority communities. Other factors may also be at work, such as NSF initiatives, government policies, such as the No Child Left Behind Legislation operating in public schools in America, and other media in addition to television and film such as the latest cell phones. The popularity of cell phones are now being equipped to show shortened versions of popular cable television programs in addition to the simulated games that are also on most cell phones. All of the factors provide researchers further opportunities to conduct studies of the changing role of media in the lives of American youth, especially youth from underserved populations. Conclusions Based on the findings reported in this study there are two primary conclusions that can be derived. They are: (a) In the case of African American children, just as in


previous studies of the perceptions students have of SET workers and fields and the influence media and media content have on these perceptions, perceived realism is an important variable and what is perceived about SET workers, fields, and related coursework may sometimes be inaccurate; and, (b) African American children, as represented by the participants in this study, learn a great deal about SET workers and careers from their television and film-related experiences, and their behavior toward SET careers may be influenced by television, film, and related media content. These conclusions are discussed further in the following sections. Perceived Realism The varied responses of the participants in this study regarding the insight they have received about occupational choices from television and film-related media seems to further substantiate previous research (Jeffries, 1997) of an important variable in any cultivation effect, perceived realism—the degree to which children perceive that what they see on television is “real” or reflective of real life. Underlying research on this factor is the belief that children may somehow be more influenced by content they believe is real (p. 185). “Identity” or “the degree of similarity the viewer perceives between television characters and situations and the people and situations experienced in real life,” according to Potter (1986, 1988, cited in Van Evra, 2004, p. 7), also plays an important role in the concept of perceived reality.


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Van Evra (2004) wrote the following: Individuals high on this dimension feel close to television characters, have a strong sense of reality about them, and feel about them the way they feel about real friends. They believe that television characters are similar to individuals they meet in real life, and they are likely to be more susceptible to television’s influence, (p. 7). In this particular study, many of the participants spoke about some of the characters in their favorite television shows as though they were members of their family. For most of these children, television or film portrayals of occupational roles tended to be a large component of reality. In contrast, participants who cited other influences such as parents, relative to career selections, tended to view television and film portrayals of SET workers and other occupations as less real than experiences and influences apart from television and film viewing and thus may have been less affected by these media portrayals. However, the findings in this study clearly indicated that television, film, and related media depictions of SET workers and scientifically-oriented fields may have an influence on the perceptions African American children have of those fields and careers in them. In some instances, these perceptions may be less realistic than in others. In other instances, other influences may mitigate the effects of television and film content. But for African American children whom the study participants represented, the influence of media portrayals of SET workers and fields on their perceptions is definitely at work in various ways. Perhaps most importantly, many of these children’s perceptions of SET workers and fields are at least in part shaped by the limited extent to which they have


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seen positive, realistic portrayals of SET workers and fields in television and film content and their even less frequent exposure to African Americans being depicted in such roles and settings. Equally important is the conclusion based on this study that children, in this case African American children, view television and film-related media content to learn how they should act in the world. Learning-An Important Consequence o f Television and Film Viewing o f SET Workers and Careers Numerous comments made by respondents in this study were indicative of the “need to learn” element of their viewing experiences. Participants in this study have learned most of what they know from television. They have learned the intricacies of fashion designing from Raven, culinary cuisine ideas from Emeril the chef or from Raven’s dad who is a chef, climatology from Day After Tomorrow, to name only a few key consequences of television and film viewing of the participants. One female CHROME participant watched Saved by the Bell every weekday morning at 7 am. She knew what each of the students liked: one liked designing clothes, one liked boys, one was a geek, and one, Slater, liked the girls. As Brown, Steele, and Walsh-Childers (2002) have indicated, what one learns from the media depends not only on viewers’ motivations and needs in the viewing situation but also on their sense of self, or identity, and their lived experience. “The lived experience,” according to Brown et al., “accounts for all the other factors, such as developmental stage, gender, race, or socioeconomic level and other factors that differentiate one person’s experiences from another’s” (pp. 9-10). The assumption is that


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choices and interactions with media are “based on who the person is or wants to be at the time” (p. 9). This was found to be true of the participants in this study, as most of the participants, especially those who had not been exposed to a significant number of role models in science, engineering, and technology, appeared to blur the lines between reality and their perceptions of reality. As stated previously, most of the participants selected popular singers or rappers as their favorite celebrities or heroes and as someone they would most like to be. Only with prompting regarding their favorite characters in SET roles in television, films, and related media, were they able to reflect on favorite characters they had viewed in SET roles. The participants’ knowledge about actual African American scientists, engineers, and technology workers was primarily limited to George Washington Carver and Madame C. J. Walker (inventor of the straightening comb for African American women and the first African American female millionaire). A couple of participants named Martin Luther King as their favorite scientist. This suggests primarily that, not only do the media, including black-oriented media, present so few images of African Americans in SET roles, but this also suggests that many parents primarily, and teachers also are not exposing African American children to African American scientists, engineers, and technology innovators in history. Thus, the absence of the African American in media portrayals of the scientist, engineer, or technology worker is the result of many years of denial of this possibility though media and society that such an occurrence is highly improbable. The next section discusses the implications of the study and suggests recommendations for future research.


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Implications o f the Study The findings and previously discussed general conclusions of this study appear to have implications for those in the media industry, educators and organizations such as the National Science Foundation that are concerned with children's perceptions of SET fields and workers and the current shortage of young people, particularly African American youth, with an interest in careers in these fields. As discussed in Chapter 1, a substantial supply of qualified American SET workers is thought to be critical to the United State economy. Serious problems appear to be forthcoming that may threaten the nation's long term prosperity. Among these are large increases in retirements from the science and engineering workforce projected over the next two decades, the projected rapid growth in science and engineering occupations over the next decade (at three times the rate of all other occupations), and the anticipated growth in the need for American citizens with science and engineering skills in jobs related to national security, following September 11, 2001.

What this and the particular findings in this study may mean to media professionals, educators, the science communities, and others is discussed in the following sections. Implications for Media Producers, Directors, and Writers This study has presented additional evidence confirming previous media effects theories and research that show that media do affect children’s cultural attitudes. Through Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory, we understand that children learn about themselves and the world around them from observing others. Therefore, their attitudes and behaviors can be influenced by viewing television and other film-related media


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materials. Social learning theory (Bandura, 1977) also states television’s influence is moderated by viewers’ own needs, interests, abilities, motivations, and self-concepts. Media producers, directors and writers, therefore, need to understand specifically the unique ways that television influences both minority group and majority group children’s attitudes toward other racial groups, their own racial group, and themselves, in addition to the perceptions they have of working life and roles within it. As the results of this study indicate, children's perceptions of SET fields, careers and roles in them, and coursework that leads to them are in part, and in some cases very greatly, influenced by the portrayals of these fields and jobs in them in television and film content, including fictional presentations. Again, this study also demonstrates that African American youth perceptions of SET careers, roles, and related coursework can be shaped considerably by the extent to which they see African American characters portrayed in this type of media content and portrayed in a positive, meaningful way. This suggests that media producers, directors, and writers need to understand that how they depict SET fields and workers can have a considerable influence on the thinking and behavior of children that extends well beyond the time of viewing. In addition, reflecting diversity within the context of portrayals of SET fields and roles in television programs and other film-related media tells children, in this case African American children, that people of their race are important and have the right to feel included. In television programming and films that do not necessarily deal with SET fields and roles, this same sensitivity to race or ethnicity seems essential any time children are the intended or part of the viewing audience. While the media industry has done remarkably well in producing a culture of entertainment, the results of this study


Ill also suggest that it must take on a greater role of sharing with educators the task of developing African American and other children’s interest in SET fields and pursuing careers within them. Mitroff (2004) noted that among the many cultural, institutional, and personal factors likely to contribute to school success or failure,“the stories presented in media have the potential to influence teenagers’ knowledge, attitudes, norms and learning strategies” (p. 146). Such was the case in this study of 5th grade students. Study participants expressed definite learning strategies derived from television and film-related media that allowed them to incorporate crucial critical thinking skills that were shaped by, constructed from, and connected to each viewer’s background. Media producers, directors, and writers also could develop SET-oriented entertainment content that depicts involvement in these fields and activities as more cooperative and collaborative, rather than competitive and individualistic. The histories and perspectives of African American and other minority groups also could be incorporated in media content in which SET fields and roles are portrayed. In addition, stories that made mathematics and science learning more relevant to all viewers within the context of the viewers’ lived experiences would be beneficial. Furthermore, because the majority of the respondents in this study were aware of the fact that they seldom saw African American portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers and desired to see more of these portrayals, media producers, directors and writers could include more African American character portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers in prime-time television dramatic programs, such as CSI, and on cable networks, such as the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, which


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were heavily and frequently viewed by the African American participants of this study. Portrayals should include African American scientists and engineers as integral to the storyline and not as incidental characters. A recent example of the media that participants in this study seemed to think was a positive example of an African American scientist is the Golden Globe award-winning HBO film, Something That the Lord Made. In this film, the story of an African American scientist, Dr. Vivien Thomas, who was a pioneering research scientist in cardiac surgery, is told. Thomas, though never acknowledged for his successful research on ‘blue babies,’ was, after 30 years, awarded an honorary Doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. This was the site of many successful surgeries of blue baby patients. Both CHROME and GK12 respondents indicated the film's ability to motivate them to pursue whatever career aspirations they had, in spite of all obstacles. Finally, the attention to detail about occupational portrayals given by the participants of this study suggests media producers, directors and writers should incorporate more career exploration themes in programs. Because the literature (Mitroff, 2004) suggests that a central task of teen development is learning to consider current actions in terms of future outcomes, career exploration—-currently absent from these portrayals—could possibly promote more positive fixture-directed behavior. Presenting science and technology subjects contextually in the media, in ways that are meaningful and relevant for the young learner, would go a long way toward encouraging the non-traditional student (as exemplified by the children in this study) to get into SET fields.


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Finally, the findings of this study suggest media producers, directors, and writers should incorporate more career exploration themes in television programs. Because the literature suggests a central task of teen development is learning to consider current actions in terms of future outcomes, career exploration (which is currently all but absent from these portrayals) could possibly promote more positive future-directed behavior. On the other hand, makers of video games and communication researchers could collaborate in studies to assess the influence video games might have on the perceptions of reality of children. Implications for Educators The findings of this study that reveal the ability of the media, particularly television, to influence African American youth attitudes, perceptions, and intrinsic beliefs about the world they live in, should help educators recognize the power of television and film to serve as a doorway into a uniquely rigorous curriculum. Using television’s dynamic power to tell stories is an area where television can make a significant contribution in the classroom. Fictional television series, integrated with well-coordinated, rigorous math and science lesson plans that build off a fictional storyline, should fare well in engaging youth in the intricacies of science, engineering, and technology. Greater investment is needed in television and film-related programming similar to what has been produced, to some extent, by specific organizations. Curriculum companies such as the GALAXY Classroom, produce science curricula built around fictional television series. Specific programs may be integrated with activities undertaken apart from viewing, such as hands-on science explorations, art projects, and letter-writing


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to the fictional characters. The S.N.O.O.P.S. series, targeted at 5th graders, shows a group of adventurous children using science to solve a series of mysteries. NASA CONNECT™ programs, produced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Langley Research Center Office of Education in Hampton, Virginia, has an annual series of integrated math, science, and technology programs for students in grades 6-8 broadcast on Ku- and C-band satellite and over 130 PBS stations, Channel One, and on many cable access channels. As a U.S. Government product that is not subject to copyright, there are no fees or licensing agreements for the three component programs consisting of (a) a 30-minute television broadcast that can be viewed live or taped for later use, (b) an educator guide describing a hands-on activity, and (c) an interactive web activity that provides educators an opportunity to use technology in the classroom setting. However, none of the respondents of this study had ever seen any of the aforementioned programs. This suggests that a more targeted approach should be identified by media producers and educators of these shows or similar programs that are created in order to reach a more inclusive audience of underrepresented minorities. Educators also should aim to show (in the classroom) programs that are not only intellectually engaging, but relevant to the world where the student lives. Because most of the respondents in this study are active viewers of television and film-related media, the research further substantiates that programs that allow young students to make predictions about the narrative, ask questions, and imitate behaviors they see would be most beneficial media for reducing classroom boredom and engaging youthful imagination in rich classroom activities.


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The lack of portrayals of scientists and engineers, participating in scientific activities outside of the laboratory, suggests a need in the elementary school science curriculum to create opportunities for students to see scientists in a variety of settings, roles, and as individuals. This could be accomplished by including media in instruction that portrays them in these ways and by introducing them to SET workers in various faceto-face settings. Tidewater Community College (Norfolk, VA) professor, Sally Harrell, provided ways wherein she thought media producers and educators could collaborate in the learning process at every level of the K-20 educational system. Harrell stated: I would love to include a portion of “Law and Order” in a writing class. While the gory crime itself is not necessarily something that needs to be visually reinforced, the storyline and its conclusion raise so many ethical, legal, right vs. wrong, and values issues. Never do all prevail.. .a gold mine for evaluative and critical thinking. Perhaps, part of our responsibility as educators, is to partner with the media more extensively (and perhaps those opportunities already exist, and I am not aware) to give our students the support needed to be critical viewers who can function along a continuum from separating reality from fiction to critically analyzing the real issues that are so challenging for this society to manage, yet have such a noticeable impact on our culture, (personal communication, March 16, 2005) Thus, media producers, writers, directors, and educators representing the entire


K-20 (kindergarten through graduate school) must collaborate on presenting portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers on television and in film-related media that incorporate some of the values .that underlie the SET worker, the values that give them and the scientific fields they study, character. Mediated science education is in a uniquely strong delivery system to foster curiosity, positive attitudes, and openness to innovative ideas for children. It also can help these children understand that the media that they interact with on a daily basis— television, movies, videos, DVDs, the Internet— are simply forms of technology that were at one time designed and developed by scientists and engineers. Implications for the National Science Foundation and Other Scientific Organizations Research Initiatives The findings in this particular study have implications for federal government agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, NASA, and others that have played a crucial role as sponsors of science and engineering research. These organizations also have advanced education in the SET fields in various ways. One of their efforts has been to bring many foreign scholars and professionals to the United States to study and work while pursuing science and engineering degrees and careers. However, the availability of outstanding science and engineering talent from other countries is no longer assured, as international competition for the science and engineering workforce has grown. In addition, threats to world peace and domestic security have created additional constraints on employment of foreign nationals in the United States. What this means is these agencies must facilitate the United States development and retention of science and engineering personnel, if this country is to


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retain its global advantage in these areas, to sustain world leadership in science and technology. This also means that the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies must create policies and programs that include a targeted effort at all levels of education to attract, develop, and retain in the science and engineering workforce American-born scientists and engineers drawn aggressively from all demographic groups, and in particular, those persons who have historically been underrepresented in these fields. The findings in this study suggest that, in the case of attracting young African Americans to help fulfill this need, positive and meaningful television and film depictions of SET fields and workers and African Americans in those roles will need to play a part. It would seem that program directors at these agencies should work with media representatives to aggressively transform the image of the SET professions and their practitioners so that the image is positive and inclusive of underrepresented minorities, such as African Americans. As stated in the previous section, the National Science Foundation (1982,1996, 2000, 2004) has in the past supported the use of the Draw-AScientist-Test as a means of determining how children perceive SET workers and perceive themselves as scientists, engineers, or participants in careers involving information technology. The findings in this study using the DAST-URM tests showed that more African American children in the study had a somewhat positive image of the scientist and engineer than had a negative one, although the idea of the scientist still reflected an overall image of “strangeness and eccentricity.” However, it seemed clear that more African American children that participated in this would be more likely to show interest in SET careers and related school work if they were exposed to more media


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portrayals of SET careers and roles with which they could identify. NSF and other agency efforts to provide these media experiences, coupled with various educational programs, should be helpful in attracting African American and other children to SET careers. Implications for the Public Understanding o f Science Community Government agencies such as NASA, The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the U.S. Departments of Education (ED) and Energy (DOE), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), involved in education and workforce development, should collaborate with the White House, industry, and professional and scientific organizations to create a new model for stimulating public interest and engagement in science, engineering and technology. This will acknowledge the need for the participation of professionals trained in the art and science of communication, who will develop novel and innovative approaches for communicating with the public about fields in the scientific endeavor. These communication specialists, as this study infers, should have a good understanding of the importance of children, including African American children, and how they respond to media and media content about SET careers, as they consider how to change perceptions of SET fields and workers overall. . Television entertainment programs do occasionally provide information about science to the public. However, television can also “distort or mischaracterize science and thus contribute to scientific illiteracy” (Nisbet et al. 2002, cited in NSF, 2004). Yet most significantly, people who communicate science information to the public are concerned that the drive to higher ratings is leading television networks to devote more air time to


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“monsters of the deep, alien abductions, angels, [and] ghosts, all of which pass for science.. .in the television industry today” (Apsell, 2002 cited in NSF, 2004). These are the “strange images” that have somehow edged their path onto the minds of youth today in pursuit of a modem science experience. Implications for Parents The current study’s findings basically reveal many factors that influence African American student perceptions of math and science classes and careers. Although the majority of respondents in both cohorts had been influenced by character portrayals viewed in television or in film-related media, most respondents still indicated they would seek their parent’s advice regarding specific career opportunities. Parents, therefore, need to pay particular attention to what their children are viewing on television, videos, DVDs, and movies, and the types of video games their children are playing. This is necessary to understand the degree of influence a specific television program or movie may have on children’s perceptions of the world they live in, including their communities and their schools, and their coursework in school. Some of the reasons respondents gave in this study for not liking math and science classes are that math and science classes are boring, they do not think they need science and math classes to succeed outside of school, or they do not consider math and science classes as fun. Parents should recognize the importance of viewing television and film programs with their children and should understand that younger children sometimes are more inclined to be influenced by character portrayals they view on television and in other film-related media than they are in other factors. Parents also should ensure that their children are exposed to role models in science, engineering, and technology in the


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elementary school years to prepare children for favorable perceptions of mathematics and science in middle and high school, continuing through the college years. Furthermore, African American and other parents should assist their children in seeing the connection between math and science and everyday life, help their children believe that math and science improves people’s lives, and undertake other necessary steps in order to facilitate a healthy foundation in math and science for their children. Parents also should encourage media producers at PBS, the Discovery and Disney Channels, and other providers of television and film content to show more programs portraying positive images of African Americans as scientists, engineers, or technology workers. Finally, parents can cooperatively encourage media organizations to be concerned with how their media content decisions indirectly influence children’s interest in math and science and pursuit of SET careers in grades 5-11. Parents could work with organizations such as the local, regional, or state PTA organizations in stimulating these collaborative efforts. Methodological Implications The strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations related to the methodological approach used in this study are discussed in the following sections. Strengths o f Current Methodological Approach The conclusions presented in this study indicate that children’s ideas about scientists have changed little over the past 48 years, when Mead and Metraux (1957) summarized the views of 35,000 high school students, noting consistently shared characteristics, and then a division between the positive and negative image of the


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scientist. Based on their analysis, Mead and Metraux (1957) suggested that mass media should emphasize the real, human rewards of science, the enjoyment of group work, and how science works. The findings of this study reflect the fact that Mead and Metraux’ (1957) recommendations have not been heeded by the mass media as a whole. To fulfill the primary purpose of this study— which was to explore the extent to which a sample of African American 5th grade students have been influenced by television and film-related media portrayals of science, technology, engineering, and mathematical fields and workers— the qualitative research paradigm was selected and a phenomenologically-oriented strategy was employed to examine the actual lived experiences of the African American pre-teen as it related to mediated images of SET fields and workers. Emphasizing the value of individually lived experiences and views as encountered in real-life situations does not involve the quantification of facts. Instead, the approach involving in-depth interviews allowed for a descriptive, inductive analysis of the meaning ascribed to mediated images by African American youth. This methodological analysis of African American pre-teen culture in this context also validated previous research that has shown that culture influences what children see and how they see it. The Draw-A-Scientist component of the research strengthened the methodological approach to the study, because respondents were able to include in their drawings ideas they may never have considered discussing during the interview process. For example, a GK-12 respondent drew a picture of steps leading to a basement where the scientist she had drawn worked. When questioned about the steps, she stated the scientist worked in the basement because he was working on a secret project and did not want anyone to


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know what he was doing. Thus, the opinion that scientists perform the stereotypical secretive duties became evident in the drawing rather than in the interview. The Draw-A-Scientist component was also helpful in ascertaining how respondents perceive themselves as scientists, engineers or technology workers. The majority of respondents drew scientists or engineers who were not actively engaged in a project or activity, suggesting the need for students to understand and for teachers to communicate the relevance of science and mathematics in the student’s lives. Weaknesses o f the Methodological Approach Qualitative approaches such as used in this study limit generalizing findings to larger populations. Yet the in-depth insights and detail that were yielded in this study could not have been obtained through more quantitative methodologies. One specific weakness of the specific methodological approach used in this study was the researcher’s inability to gain immediate rapport with the pre-teen respondents. An approach that uses induction to discover rather than to logically prove a position suffers somewhat, if respondents are not openly engaged in discussing attitudes and perceptions toward media portrayals of SET fields and workers and science and mathematics courses. The Draw-A-Scientist component of the research also presented a weakness, since a small number of respondents were not able to draw well, or simply did not feel like drawing anything. It was found that more time should be allotted for this component of the research, as students have varying abilities of artsmanship. The study was limited by its small number of participants, although it was a sizable sample (34) for qualitative studies of this type. In addition, every effort was made to select a diversity of African American pre-teens from the two cohorts.


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Theoretical Implications This study contributes to the growing body of scholarly research that has dealt with the portrayal of minority groups, occupations and occupational roles and many other specific depictions in television and film content and their effects on attitudes and behavior of children and other age groups that view them. It specifically adds to previous research and literature about the portrayal of SET fields and workers in media content and its influence on children and others. However, it is the first study to concentrate on the perceptions African American children have toward SET fields and roles in them and the influence of television and film portrayals of SET fields and workers on these perceptions. Cultivation Analysis and the Construction o f Social Reality The key assumption of cultivation theory is that it is expected to predict that frequent and heavy viewers of television are more likely to have perceptions that are more consistent with television’s portrayal of the world than what is actually happening in the real world (Wright, 1986). Another assumption of cultivation theory is that heavy viewers are less selective in their viewing, engage in habitual viewing, and experience a good deal of sameness of content (Van Evra, 2004). The findings in this qualitative study of 5th grade African American children's perceptions of SET fields, roles, and related coursework and media portrayals that influenced them in this respect seemed to confirm both of these assumptions. Furthermore, the findings of this study at least suggest that two other generalizations associated with the cultivation analysis theoretical perspective hold true; that is, that the influence of television is greater when it functions as the only


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information source and when television content is more relevant to viewers' lived experiences. Because, according to Van Evra (2004), an important variable in any cultivation effect is perceived reality, the findings of this study also supported cultivation theory’s assumption that heavy viewers have few other sources of ideas. This was revealed particularly in the GK-12 cohort because respondents in that group were exposed to few role models in the scientific disciplines. They were more apt to exhibit reality perceptions that were consistent with television and film portrayals. Therefore, one can understand through a cultivation perspective how an African American pre-teen with fewer sources of mediated information other than television to learn what a scientist or engineer actually does, may somehow assume that stereotypical portrayals of SET workers are real. Integrated with the theoretical framework of the construction of social reality (Berger & Luckmann, 1967; Adoni & Mane, 1984), cultivation theory (Gerbner & Gross, 1976; Gerbner et al., 1978; 1980, 1993, 2002) thus served as a useful framework for understanding how these groups of African American tweens construct the reality of their world, according to what is revealed to them of their world in the media, particularly television, because of its accessibility in the home. How respondents in this study were able to construct and perceive reality also revealed the importance of identification with media characters that has been the focus of much scholarly research discussed in Chapter 2. This degree of closeness to television characters was experienced by some study participants more than others. For example, the GK-12 respondent who assumed the identity of Yu-Gi-Oh (a television program character) as his code name or the uncanny


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sense of identity some respondents in both the GK-12 and CHROME groups had with the television character Raven. These respondents considered these characters to truly be friends. The contention made in previous scholarly research that African American tweens are more likely to be susceptible to television’s influence, particularly if this is considered in terms of believing that television characters are similar to individuals known in real life, seemed to be confirmed through the collective interviews with 5th grade African American children in this study (Van Evra, 2004). Equally important to understanding the results of this study is the theoretical framework of Bandura’s (1974, 1977) social learning and later, social cognitive theory. As stated previously, much of the earlier work done by Bandura in this area pointed to observational learning and imitation of modeled behavior as the critical components of television’s impact. According to Bandura (1994), the influence of television has more to do with content viewed than the amount of viewing. In the case of this study, for example, the respondents’ abilities to identify strongly with Raven of That’s So Raven or with celebrity singers and rappers seen frequently on television, (Beyonce, Usher, and 50 Cents) seem to support Van Evra’s (2004) contention that models can be “inhibitors or disinhibitors, teachers or tutors, social prompts, or emotion arousers and they can shape conceptions of reality values” (p. 5). Again, the theoretical framework of the construction of social reality (Berger & Luckmann, 1967; Adoni & Mane, 1984) is a meaningful perspective for further revealing how African American pre-teens construct reality based upon what is viewed in television and other film-related media.


Analyzing through the lens of the uses and gratification theoretical approach, data obtained through the media use questionnaire that was a part of the protocol for this study also proved to be useful. The respondents’ motivations and needs, their media preferences, and patterns of use were noted, and provided the foundational framework for the remaining qualitative questions in the study. Interesting data derived from this study revealed that the majority of respondents engaged in ritualistic viewing of television, in particular, which, according to Comstock and Scharrer (1999) gives viewing experiences passing attention. However, some respondents who reported frequent use and identification with characters in video games tended to be more engaged with action and scientifically-oriented character portrayals. This suggests that video games could be a viable medium through which to introduce the excitement of scientific careers to African American tween students. However, caution should be taken that the content of the video games is appropriate and presents scientific careers within a positive framework as opposed to the negative one. According to Williamson, Land, Butler, and Ndahi (2004) the notion of using games to engage children in learning activities is not new, because they use games to frame their beliefs about competition, as well as how to relate to other players and to learn how to be successful. Weaknesses o f Current Theoretical Implications The weakness of the theoretical perspectives used in this study is that neither perspective deals adequately with various influences on children’s attitudes and behavior apart from the influence of media. In this study that included African American pre-teen populations in at-risk Empowerment Zone (EZ) communities, for example, a number of


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important cultural issues, such as, homelessness, drug abuse, incarceration, and loss of parents through death, at an early age are often dealt with by these children on a daily basis. It is hopeful that data from this study will encourage other scholarly investigations that use new or synthesized theoretical approaches and methodologies that can include some of these important influences on children’s perceptions of SET fields and roles in them. The cultural studies approach has also been efficient at examining the complex ways Black youth intervene in the production of popular media culture (Watkins, 1998). “Youth,” Watkins wrote, “actively select from a varied field of media products and services in Order to fashion their own distinct cultures and generational identities” (p. 4). Respondents in the current study supported Watkins contention, as the majority viewed television and movies according to their constructed “legitimized” views reflecting their own lived experiences. Because the assumptions one brings to the process of sense-making greatly influences what one will learn and how one will use knowledge, as Casmir (1994) observed, a sociocultural perspective, if employed in future research, also could contribute further understanding of teaching, schooling and educating African American children and other groups within scientific disciplines. It is not intended to imply that the media, in and of itself, are creating the problems of the world, for they are not. However, it may be the perceptions that the media tend to generate, when a child has little interaction with family members, role models in the community, or simply friends.. .that must be paid attention to in our children’s lives.


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Recommendations for Future Research o f Media Influence on Children’s Perceptions o f SET Workers, Careers, and Coursework The majority of respondents in both the CHROME and GK-12 groups identified greatly with animated characters, such as Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon, Pokemon, Jimmy Neutron, Proud Family characters, Kim Possible, and the infamous Sponge Bob Square Pants, on Disney and Nickelodeon cable networks, suggesting that these corporations and networks have considerable influence on African American pre-teen youth. Studies that focus on these forms of programming and these entities as they relate to African American children’s perceptions of SET fields and roles, might yield useful data. Such animated images could be relegated to Guerrero’s (1993) “social construction and representation of race, otherness, and non-whiteness... as an ongoing process, working itself out in many symbolic, cinematic forms of expression, but particularly in the racialized metaphors and allegories of the fantasy, sci-fi, and horror genres” (p. 57). This sense of identification with animated characters, as seen on Disney and Nickelodeon, warrants further study on the impact of media use and cultivation of animated images by American youth. Animated images might be examined along with the vast technological possibilities of “imagining and rendering of all kinds of simulacra for aliens, monsters, [and] mutant outcasts” (Guerrero, 1993, p. 57), as a means of giving free “associative range and symbolic play to the pent-up energies of society’s repressed racial discourse” (p.57). Furthermore, Guerrerro’s contention that the representational and narrative conventions of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror films almost always “defy or transcend


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dominant cinema’s illusionist, linear style of depicting a naturalized ‘realism’” (Guererro, 1993, p. 57) opens the genre to subversive politics. Further research could be conducted to explore if the fantastic, often future worlds depicted in much of today’s television programming also project the outcomes of failed institutional policies, nuclear wars, or exhausted ecosystems, rendering to African American youth “sharp countercultural critiques of the dominant social policies and values of the present” (p. 57). Studies on the influence of video games and video game movies on children would also contribute greatly to the influential research/effects literature. The identification with the fantastic otherness of characters that most respondents of this study tended to strongly favor corroborates Potter’s (1986) “magic window dimension” of perceived reality which refers to the degree in which a viewer believes television content is an “unaltered, accurate representation of actual life” (p. 95). In addition, Spike Lee’s (Lothery, 2001, cited in Entman & Rojecki, 2001) “Magic Negroes” syndrome which, according to Entman & Rojecki (2001), “continues to associate Black identity and the natural or even supernatural world, while White identity goes with the material world of intellect, power, and success” may be relevant to this area of investigation (p. xvii). While Potter (1986) did note that adults are assumed to be able to discount television and put in a fantasy perspective, thereby reducing its effects, children under the age of twelve can rarely critique and discount television content like adults. Thus, further research on the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres in television and film-related media should also be conducted to explore the genre’s ability to allow its viewers to transcend difference and social anxieties. It would appear most likely that


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media producers and writers of mainstream and Black-owned television and film-related media content could take advantage of Potter’s (1986) “magic window dimension” of perceived reality to create programming that reflects the pro-social characteristics of scientists, engineers, and technology workers and is presented in both non-animated and animated form. This strategy might go far in further dispelling some of the mythic stereotypes of scientists and engineers that continue to prevail in the media today. More qualitative studies of different minority populations and ages would provide further clarity in observing such other thoughts, events, or conditions that trigger specific behaviors when specific television programs, movies, or video games are viewed and played, particularly as it relates to the issue of perceptions of SET fields, careers, roles in them, and related coursework. In addition to conducting research from the sociocultural and grounded theories perspectives, research including Steele’s (1992, 1997, 1998) notion of “stereotype threat” would be helpful to reveal if minority populations’ academic behavior, specifically in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematical fields, is predicated on how they feel they should act, based upon the images reflected of their people-groups in print, television, and film-related media. More research also should be ,conducted at the elementary and middle-school level on the impact of “stereotype threat” on test results of African American youth compared with White youth and other minority populations. Stereotype threat (Steele, 1992,1997, 1998) refers to the experience of being in a situation where one recognizes that a negative stereotype about one’s group is applicable to oneself. Steele (1998) noted that when this happens, one knows that one could be judged or treated in terms of that


stereotype, or that one could inadvertently do something that would confirm it. Respondents in this particular study repeated consistently their belief that African Americans are rarely portrayed on television and in film-related content because of the fact that Whites think “Blacks are stupid” (CHROME male respondent). The results from a stereotype threat study would provide valuable information for media producers, writers, and directors on the importance of constructing adequate portrayals of African Americans as scientists, engineers, or technology workers in television and film-related content specifically. A research question for this study would be, To what extent do negative or stereotypical portrayals of African Americans as scientists, engineers, and technology workers in media content affect standardized test scores of African American youth (and other minority populations) in math and in science. Additional research questions that might be considered in future research are: In what ways are science, engineering, and technology issues and concerns portrayed in entertainment programming? Which portrayals of SET workers may be the most effective or most ineffective in terms of modeling? What types of television or film-related media characters would be considered credible sources of information regarding SET workers and careers? What makes certain characters in SET roles appealing or unappealing as role models? Are depictions of SET workers used in some entertainment genres more than in others? What do youth consider “cool” and “uncool”, and how do these determinations relate to their processing of messages about SET professionals. The study of media influences on the perceptions African American and other children seem to have of SET workers, fields, and careers, and their behavior regarding


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them, seems to offer endless opportunities for meaningful research in an area of study that has many significant practical and theoretical implications. Final Conclusion It must be noted that a review of the portrayals of scientists, engineers, and technology workers in television and film-related media is but one intervention to compensate for a public education system that falls somewhat short in preparing all of its children, particularly minority children, for science and engineering careers in the 21st Century. A recent Time Magazine article (May 9, 2005) that suggests the future belongs to China mainly due to its preeminence in science, engineering, and technology, should sound the wake-up bell for parents, educators, and policy makers of the U.S. educational system to continue to review and assess how the media, with whom our children spend more time than for any other activity besides sleeping, influence and shape how every child in America envisions the world of science and technology he or she is participating in today and may be engaged in tomorrow.


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APPENDIX A Qualitative In-Depth Interview Protocol Part I: Questionnaire - Administered Orally (Approximate time: 10 minutes) 1.

How often do you watch TV? (Questions 1-7: media usage questions) [ ] every day [ ] several times each week [ ] about once a week [ ] sometimes, but less than once a week [ ] never

2.

How often do you go to movies at a theater? [ ] every day [ ] several times each week [ ] about once a week [ ] sometimes, but less than once a week [ ] never

3. How often do you watch videos or movies at home on VCR, DVD, or PayFor-View? [ ] every day [ ] several times each week [ ] about once a week [ ] sometimes, but less than once a week [ ] never 4. How often do you read books outside of the books you have to read for school? [ ] every day [ ] several times each week [ ] about once a week [ ] sometimes, but less than once a week [ ] never 5. How often do you read magazines? [ ] every day [ ] several times each week [ ] about once a week [ ] sometimes, but less than once a week [ ] never


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6. How often do you use the computer? [ ] every day [ ] several times each week [ ] about once a week [ ] sometimes, but less than once a week [ ] never 7. How often do you play with video games? [ ] every day [ ] several times each week [ ] about once a week [ ] sometimes, but less than once a week [ ] never 8. Who are your top 3 celebrities or heroes that you admire in the television shows or movies, DVDs and/or videos that you watch? (RQ-2) 1. 2.

3. 9. Of the celebrities or heroes you just wrote/named, which one would you most like to be like when you grow up? Why? (RQ-2) 10. List 3 jobs you would like to do when you grow up: (RQ-1) 1. 2. 3.

11. Where would you most likely go to find information about jobs you’d like to do when you grow up? (RQ-1) [ ] family member [ ] friend [ ] public library [ ] school counselor [ ] school library [ ] teacher [ ] web sites [ ] books [ ] magazines [ ] television [ ] videos/DVDs [ ] Internet [ ] other 12. What is your grade? [ 14* | 15“ 13. What is your gender? [ ] male [ ] female.


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Part II: Exploratory Interview Protocol#l (EIP-l)-Administered Orally (Approximately time: 15 minutes) [RQs: 1,2 and 3] 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6. 7.

Have you ever seen a television program, movie in a theater or video/DVD that has a character who is a scientist, engineer, or someone who works with computers? I f answer is yes, follow through with, which tv programs, movies, videos/DVDs, etc. I f answer is no, ask “why don’t you think you never see those kinds (STEM workers) of characters in the television programs, movies, videos/DVDs that you watch? (RQ 1) Have you ever seen a television program, movie in a theater or video/DVD that has an African American character who is a scientist, engineer, or someone who works with computers? I f answer is yes, follow though with, which tv programs, movies, videos/DVDs, etc. they have seen with black portrayals of scientists, engineers or someone who works with computers. Also ask how it makes them feel about their math and science courses in school when they see black portrayals of scientists, engineers, or people who are good with technology. (RQ-2 and RQ 3) I f answer is no, ask “why don’t you think you never see those kinds (African American portrayals of STEM workers) in the television programs, movies, videos/DVDs that you watch? (RQ-2) Also...if answer is no, follow through with “Would you like to see a black person portrayed as a scientist, engineer or someone who works with computers?” Why or why not? (RQ 2) How would seeing a black person portrayed as a scientist, engineer, or one who works with computers, make you feel about being a scientist, engineer or someone who works with computers? (RQ-2) Do you think it would make you like your math and science courses in school more? (RQ-3) Do you think it would make you choose a job where math or science is used for the job, like a job as a pediatrician, doctor (choose job respondent has selected as top 3 careers/jobs in questionnaire #10). (RQ-1) Part III: Draw-A-Scientist Test 2004 (DAST-2K4) (Approximate Time: 10-15 minutes) [RQs 2 and 3]

I’d like for you (code name) to draw a picture of a scientist for me on this sheet of paper. (Consider using two sheets of paper—one for the respondents’ perception of scientist, and one for respondent’s perception of himself or herself as scientist). I have provided for you crayons for you to color your picture. Just do the best you can. After you draw a picture of your scientist, on this page, draw a picture of


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yourself doing science in school on the next page. Your scientist and the picture of you doing science in school can show some of the ways you use what you learn in science outside of school. Do you understand this task? I am going to leave the room to give you the opportunity to be as creative as you’d like. I’ll be back in ten minutes. Is this ok with you? Note: While respondent is drawins picture of a scientist and him or herself as scientist. Interviewer will be reviewing the questionnaire initially provided by respondent to inteerate answers on questionnaire administered earlier with picture drawn by respondent Interviewer will also record additional field notes and memos in a research journal to equally ensure that the data analysis will be as detailed as possible At the conclusion of this assignment, if respondent needs more time, 5 more minutes to complete the task will be provided. Part IV: Pictorial Discussion - [RQs 1,2,3] Integration of Questions 8,9 and 10 on Questionnaire Protocol Approximate time: 15 minutes 1. Now, (code name), I’d like for you to tell me about your drawing of the scientist. 2. Ask respondent how celebrities/heroes selected in question #8 of questionnaire would act or perform if he or she were a scientist. (RQ-2) 3. Ask respondent how celebrity or hero would make respondent feel if they liked doing science “things”? (RQ-2) 4. Ask respondent if that would make him or her enjoy math and science courses in school more? (RQ-3) 5. Discuss all aspects of the drawing of the scientist, including colors selected, background drawn, etc. 6. Now (code name), I’d like for you to tell me about the drawing of yourself as scientist. 7. Ask respondent about his or her career choices in question #10 and how many of doctors, police officers, teachers, (whatever the career choice) the respondent has seen on television, in the movies, or in videos or DVDs? Part V: Exploratory Interview Protocol #2 (EIP-2) Approximate Time: 15 minutes 1. Do you think your favorite television program, movie, video or video game is closer to the “real” world you live in? If so, in what ways are they different? In what ways are they alike? (If respondent focuses on one character in favorite television show, movie, video or video game, probe further)—(RQ-2) 2. What job does your favorite character in your favorite television program, movie, video or video game have? (If favorite character is a child, ask respondent what job the favorite character’s mother or father have?) (RQ-1)


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3. Who does your favorite character remind you of? Is he or she a lot like you? (RQ-2) 4. Is your favorite character smart in school? Or do you think they would be smart in school? What subjects do you think your favorite character would be the best in? (RQ-3) 5. (If favorite character is in school ask) What do you think his or her favorite subject in school might be? Why? (RQ-3) 6. Do you think you learn more about how people work and what people do in their jobs from television, the movies, computers, video games, or videos/DVDs or do you learn more about jobs from your friends, teachers, or your mother or father? Why? (RQ-1) 7. What other media...like books, magazines, video games, do you think would make you choose a certain job over another job? Why? (RQ-1)


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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

APPENDIX B - SAMPLE INTERVIEW Interview 1/PILOT TEST 5-21 -2004 YU-GI-OH (NSF GK-12) Interviewer: And you are ' Respondent: Yugioh Interviewer: Reading assent form for questionnaire.

11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

Respondent: Record Interviewer: Reading #1: How often do you watch TV Respondent: Everyday. Interviewer: How often do you go to movies at the theater? Respondent: Sometimes, but less than once a week. Interviewer: How often do you watch videos or movies at home, or DVDs? Respondent: Several times each week. Interviewer: How often do you read books? Respondent: About once a week. Interviewer: How often do you read magazines? Respondent:

Sometimes but less than once a week.

Interviewer: How often do you use the computer? Respondent: I use the computer at school everyday. Interviewer: Who are the top 3 celebrities or heroes you admire in television shows? 1. Yugioh—Television show - Channel 2 -WGNT 2. Digimon - Television 3. Pokemon - Television Interviewer: Which one would you most like to be like when you grow up? Respondent: Yugioh. Interviewer: Yugioh.. .and why is that?


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47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87

Respondent: Because I like his show and he has great cards out. Interviewer: Cards like... ? Respondent: Cards like...Yugioh cards.. Interviewer: Cards like playing cards? How many cards are in the deck? Respondent: Sometimes its 9 or 15. Interviewer: Ok, I’d have to look at that. I’m not familiar with that. Do you think I’d like it? Respondent: Respondent shakes his head in the affirmative. Interviewer: Obviously, You like that name, huh. That’s your code name. Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: If you had to choose 3 jobs which would you choose? Respondent: President, go to the army, become a police officer. Interviewer: Yugioh, If you were looking for information about jobs, where would you most likely go to find information about jobs. Would you go to A family member? Respondent: Maybe. Interviewer: A friend? Respondent: NO Interviewer: Would you go to the public library? Respondent: No. Interviewer: No. Ok. School Counselor? Respondent: No.

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89 90 91 92

Interviewer: No. School library? If you want to find out information about careers.. Respondent: Yes.


229 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137

Interviewer: You’d go to the school library. Ok. Interviewer: Would you go to websites on the Internet? Respondent: (excitedly) Yes. Interviewer: You’d definitely do that. Interviewer: What about books. Respondent. Uh huh. (no). Interviewer: Would you go to magazines? Respondent: Um hum (yes). Interviewer: Ok. What about television? Respondent: yes. Interviewer: What about videos or DVDs? Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: Internet? Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: Any other place? Respondent: maybe, uh huh (no) Interviewer: ok. And what grade are you in? Respondent: 5th. Interviewer: And you are obviously a male. Ok. Thank you. See that wasn’t hard, was it? Respondent: shakes his head (no). Interviewer: Ok, Yugioh. I just want to ask you a few questions about your responses that we recorded on your questionnaire. Is that ok with you? Respondent: yes.


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Interviewer: You listed Digimon as one of your top 3 celebrities. Why did you choose Digimon? Respondent: Because it’s a cool action movie and stuff always happens. Interviewer: What kind of stuff happens? Respondent: They use cool digimon stuff. Interview: Ok, do they have technology in digimon. Respondent: Computers. That’s how they show digimon.. .technology. Interviewer: Oh... so you like technology. Do you like computers more than television? Respondent: Computers more than television. Interviewer: You do.. .so do you spend more time on computers than on television? Respondent: (shakes his head—no) Interviewer: Oh, so you spend more time watching television? Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: Ok. You also listed Pokemon as one of your top celebrities or heroes. Why? Respondent: Because Pokemon has different varieties and different kind of things.. .like electric, fire and water and psychic stuff like that. Interviewer: Oh, do you like electric, fire, and water...? Those are scientific terms. What does Yugioh do? What is his claim to fame? Respondent: He’s supposed to save the world from evil people. Interviewer: Oh.. .from evil people. Now, how does he do that? Respondent: He duals them... Interviewer: He duals them? With his hands? Respondent: With his cards? Interviewer: With his cards? I’ll have to look at that. Ok..good. I’m still asking questions about this questionnaire. So then would you say that Digimon is smart in school?


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Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: Why do you say he’s smart in school? Respondent: Because he knows how to use the technology they use to form Digimon. Interviewer: Ok... so then would you think that Yugioh is smart in school? Respondent: umm humm (yes). Interviewer: And why would you think that? Respondent: Because he knows how to use the cards and what makes the cards come to life. Interviewer: Ok.. .that makes sense...Interesting concept. Yugioh, d o you have any heroes who may be a scientist or engineer or someone who works with computers? Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: Who? Respondent: Miss Scarlett, my teacher. (GK-12 teacher) Interviewer: Miss Scarlett? OK.. :Have you learned a lot from Miss Scarlett this year? Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: Like what. Tell me some of the things that you’ve learned. Respondent: About plants, oceans, and stuff. Interviewer: Is Miss Scarlett the first scientist or engineer you’ve had contact with? Respondent: No. Interviewer: Ok.. .who else have you had contact with that does one of those jobs? Respondent: My uncle. Interviewer: Oh your uncle. What does your uncle do? Respondent: He’s a scientist. Interviewer: Oh he is? Where is he a scientist?


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Respondent: I think its somewhere around Virginia Beach or Chesapeake. Interviewer: Ok.. .great. So your uncle’s a scientist. Do you talk about science things? Respondent: Sometimes. Interviewer: Does he tell you to do good in science? Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: Good. Ok.. .let’s talk about some of the movies on videos? Have you ever seen.. .what did you say you wanted to be when you grow up? Oh (reading questionnaire) you said you wanted to be a president, join the army, or be a police officer, is that right? Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: Ok.. .and why would you want to be the president? Respondent: Because I like to control people and stuff. Interviewer: Oh you like to control people. Why do you like to do that? Respondent: Because some people like to send people to jail or something.. Interviewer: If you’re the president or the police officer? Respondent: Police officer. Interviewer: Ok.. .that concludes this section. Now we’ll go unto the next section. Interview II Interviewer: Ok, Yugioh, I’m interested in learning about your favorite television shows, movies, videos, DVDs, and your favorite websites. OK? What are your top favorite television programs? Respondent: Umm...Yugioh, Digimon and Pokemon...maybe Jimmy Neutron and ???? Interviewer: You like a lot of shows with technology. What was the last one? Respondent: Fairly odd Parents... Interviewer: Fairly odd parents.. .what channel does that come on? Respondent: Nickelodeon.


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Interviewer: ok. Nickelodeon. How often do you look at your favorite television program? Your number one favorite television program...what’s your number one favorite television program.. .again? Respondent: Yugioh. Interviewer: How often do you watch Yugioh? Respondent: Everyday. Interviewer: Everyday. What channel does it come on? Respondent: Channel 2. Interviewer: What time? Respondent: Sometimes its 11:30 or 8:30 on Saturdays... .or Monday through Fridays at 4:30. Interviewer: OK...What is channel 2? Respondent: WGNT.. Interviewer: Ok... is that cable or regular tv?.. .cable. Ok Interviewer: What is the best television program that you viewed last week? Respondent: uummmm....Yugioh. Interviewer: Yugioh.. .Ok., and so your favorite characters in your favorite television program.... Respondent: Yugioh... Interviewer: Yugioh... Respondent: (continuing)... Kyble... Interviewer: Who is Kyble? Respondent: The evil person.. .he’s supposed to save the world. Interviewer: Now I want to ask you another question. Do you think that Yugioh.. .because that’s your favorite tv character, correct?


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Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: Do you think that Yugioh’s world is closer to the real world you live in? Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: And why is that so? What ways is it closer to the real world you live in? Respondent: So ,..you can play games to save the world. Interviewer: Ok.. .so you can play games to save the world. What is Yugioh’s job? Respondent: To stop the evil people from destroying all the good people. Interviewer: To stop the evil people from destroying all the good people. So what have you learned from this show Yugioh. Respondent: That all people you can’t trust. Interviewer: That all people you can’t trust.. Ok.. .1 want to ask you another question. Does Yugioh remind you of you? Is he like you? Respondent: ummm...in different ways. Interviewer: In different ways.. .in what ways is he like you? Respondent: Well he wants to do good and save the world? Interviewer: Ok.. .he wants to do good and save the world. Is that something you’d like to do? Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: Well, how would you do that? Respondent: By being a police officer and putting all the bad people in jail. Interviewer: Let me ask you about, let’s see, uh.. .have you ever seen a television program, or movie or video that has a character who is a scientist, engineer or someone who works with computers? Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: What, uh, let’s look at the movies. What movies have you seen with scientists or engineers in them? Respondent: The Nutty Professor.


235 368

369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413

Interviewer: Ok, the Nutty Professor.. Did you like that movie? Respondent: Umm hum (yes). Interviewer: What did you like about it? Respondent: It was funny. Interviewer: It was funny. What did you think about that scientist? Respondent: I think he was very smart and knew how to use the chemicals. Interviewer: Ok you thought he was very smart and knew how to use the chemicals. Ok.. let me ask you., what are the top.. .let’s go to the movies...what are the top 5 movies that you’ve seen in the past month that you really like? Respondent: The Haunted Mansion, Freaky Friday, Pokemon Forever, uummm I can’t remember any more. Interviewer: Ok.. .so who was your favorite character in one of the movies that you’ve just recently looked at? Respondent: It was Freaky Friday...Lisa Lohan. Interviewer: Lisa Lohan? What did Lisa Lohan do? Respondent: She switched places with her mom. Interviewer: How do you think she did that? Do you think she had to do something scientific there? Respondent: yes. Interviewer: Ok.. .so that was your favorite character. Anybody else? Respondent: Her mother. Interviewer: Her mother. So what kind of job did her mother have? Respondent: Ruining her life. Interviewer: Ok.. .but did she have a job.. .a specific career...? Respondent: Stop her from doing what she wanted.


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414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459

Interviewer: ok.. .but did she have a career.. .like from Respondent: Yea, she was just a mom.

8 to 5?

Interviewer: Ok... .who does Lizzie remind you a lot of. Does she remind you of someone you know? Respondent: umm ummm (no). Interviewer: Ok... lets go to videos. Have you rented a video or DVD within the past 3 weeks? Respondent: NO. Interviewer: Past 3 months. Respondent: No. Interviewer: Oh, so you don’t rent videos/DVD lot? Respondent: No, we don’t rent them, we buy them. ■ Interviewer: Ok so what was the last video you bought within the past 3 months? Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: Ok.. .what was the name of it? Respondent: SWAT... Interviewer: SWAT? Ok...anything else? Respondent. No. Interviewer: Ok.. .tell me something about SWAT. Who played the major role in SWAT? Respondent: I didn’t really watch it. My dad watched it. Interviewer: Oh, your dad watched it. Ok so you didn’t really watch it. What about something that you’ve watched? Have you watched anything lately on video or DVD? Respondent: Umm Umm. (no) Interviewer: OK. You did say you liked to do video games, right? What kind of video games do you like to play?


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460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 A ll 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505

Respondent: Supersmash....(.???) Resident Evil... football, basketball and Pokemon games. Interviewer: Ok, so why do you like to play those? Do you like that because... why do you like to play video games? Respondent: Because it’s exciting... its exciting. Interviewer: It’s exciting. So you like things that are exciting, right? Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: Ok. So what again are the names of those video games you see a lot? Respondent: Resident Evil. Sometimes Spiderman, and Pokemon the movie. Interviewer: You said “resident” evil.. .and then, sometimes Spidermaril Respondent: Um hum. (yes) Interviewer: Ok.. .so of all these tv shows and movies and everything you’ve watched, which one is most like the world you live in? Respondent: Yu-Gi-Oh. Interviewer: Yu-Gi-Oh.. Yu-Gi-Oh wins. Thanks a lot. Ok, we’re almost through. Interviewer: Ok..(speaking about Yu-Gi-Oh’s picture that he drew) what kind of scientist did you draw? What color did you make him? Respondent: Kinda gray... Interviewer: Ok..gray.. .why is he gray? Respondent: Because he’s old. Interviewer: Oh, he’s old? Respondent: Um -hum ... (yes) Interviewer: How old is he? Respondent: Maybe about in his 70s or 80s.. Interviewer: Wow.. .he’s real old... why is he so old? He’s a scientist.. .why is he old?


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506 507 508 509 510 511

512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551

Respondent: Because he’s being doing this for a long time... Interviewer: Ok...who are these people with him on the side? Are these people or... Respondent: um um...(no)...chemicals. Interviewer: Oh, these are chemicals. What kind of chemicals are they? Respondent: Dry chemicals... (unintelligible).... Interviewer: Ok, do you think this scientist likes what he does? Respondent: umm, sometimes. Interviewer: Sometimes. Why does he just have one arm? Respondent: This is his other arm (pointing to a side appendage).. .he’s reaching for the computer. Interviewer: Oh, this is his other arm.. .reaching for the computer.. .oh, I see. Ok... Great. So, what type of person is this scientist? Respondent: He’s a scientist from Jimmy Neutron... Interviewer: From Jimmy Neutron? Oh,.. .Ok.. .you like that show too. Is that on television or cable? Respondent: Cable. Interviewer: What channel? Respondent: 29. Interviewer: and what station is that? Respondent: Nickelodeon. Interviewer: Nickelodeon. You like to watch a lot of Nickelodeon. Respondent: Um-hum. Interviewer: OK... Yu-gi-oh..I’m going to go right on.. .this is the last of science knowledge. I want to see how you feel about it.


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552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597

Interviewer: OK, Yu-gi-oh.. .of math, science, reading, and spelling, which activity do you like the best? Respondent: umm... I would say science. Interviewer: Science. Ok. Which activity do you like the least? Math, reading, science, or spelling? Respondent: Ummm...Math. Interviewer: Math..you’re the least good in math.. .Ok.. ..does your heart beat faster when taking a test? This is regarding test anxiety. Respondent: sometimes. Interviewer: Sometimes. Ok.. .and on a particular test, say the SOLs... do you get a little nervous or a lot nervous. Respondent: A lot nervous. Interviewer: You get a lot nervous? Why do you get a lot nervous? Respondent: Because some of the questions are hard... And I feel like if I don’t know the answers to the questions I might fail. Interviewer: Ok., you feel like you might fail if you don’t know the answers to the questions.. .Ok.. YU-GI-OH, how good at math are you? Respondent: Umm...sometimes good and sometimes bad. Interviewer: Ok...and how good at science are you? Respondent: Very good. Interviewer: Very good. Ok...If you were to list all the students (in your class) from best to worst in math, where would you be? Respondent: umm...maybe in the middle. Interviewer: In the middle, Ok. And if you were to list all the people from best to worst in science, where would you be? Respondent: Top. Interviewer: Top...great! Interviewer: Ok. Compared to other subjects, how good are you at math?


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598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609 610 611 612 613 614 615 616 617 618 619 620 621 622 623 624 625 626 627 628 629 630 631 632 633 634 635 636 637 638 639 640 641 642 643

Respondent: Better at reading than at math. Interviewer: Ok, so compared to other subjects, you are better at reading than at math. Respondent: Yes. Interviewer: How good do you think you would be in a career requiring science skills? Respondent: Very good. Interviewer: Very good. Ok. So how good do you think you would be in a career requiring math skills? Respondent: Not so good. Interviewer: Now I’m going to look at how much your friends might encourage you, Yugioh.. .just your friends, ok? Respondent: ok. Interviewer: You can strongly agree on this, be neutral (means you’re not sure) or strongly disagree. My friends encourage me to disobey my parents. Respondent: strongly disagree. Interviewer: OK. My friends encourage me to do dangerous things. Respondent: strongly disagree. Interviewer: OK. How many of your friends get in trouble at school? Respondent: Maybe about one of them. Interviewer: Only one? Respondent: (nods yes). Interviewer: Oh good. Ok. And how many of your friends get in fights with other kids? Respondent: UUM.. .1 would say two. Interviewer: OK.. .about two. Let’s look at this. How important for you is it to keep friends? Would you try to act not so smart if you thought it was the popular thing to do?


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644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 652 653 654 655 656 657 658 659 660 661 662 663 664 665 666 667 668 669 670 671 672 673 674 675 676 677 678 679 680 681 682 683 684 685 686 687 688 689

Respondent: NO. Interviewer: No. OK. Is it ok to let your schoolwork slip or get a lower grade in order to be popular with your friends? Respondent: No. Interviewer: Is it ok to break some of your parents rules to be popular with your friends. Respondent: NO. Interviewer: OK. My friends encourage me to do my best in school. Would you strongly disagree... are your neutral... or would you strongly agree? Respondent: Strongly agree. Interviewer: OK. How many of your friends think that school work is important? Respondent: Some. Interviewer: How many of your friends are involved with student government or other school activities? Respondent: Uuum...none. Interviewer: None. Ok. How many of your friends think it is important to do volunteer work to help out their communities? Respondent: none. Interviewer: How many of your friends play sports? Respondent: All of them. Interviewer: A ll. OK. Thank you, Yugioh. Interviewer: On the following questions, answer from 1 to 7. strongly disagree to strongly agree. Ok. Overall, being black has very little to do with how you feel about yourself. Respondent: 1 Interviewer: In general, being black is an important part of your self-image. Respondent: 1 Interviewer: Ok. My destiny is tied to the destiny of other black people.


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690 691 692 693 694 695 696 697 698 699 700 701 702 703 704 705 706 707 708 709 710 711

712 713 714 715 716 717 718 719 720 721 722 723 724 725 726 727 728 729 730 731 732 733 734

Respondent: 1 Interviewer: Being black is unimportant to my sense of what kind of person I am. Respondent: 1 Interviewer: I have a strong sense of belonging to black people. Respondent: 5 Interviewer: I have a strong attachment to other black people. In other words, you like being around black people. Respondent: 1 Interviewer: Being black is an important reflection of who I am. Respondent: Uum...4. Interviewer: Ok. Being black is not a major factor in my social relationships. In other words, do you choose your friends because theyare black or it doesn’t matter. Respondent: It doesn’t matter. Interviewer: Ok. Private Regard. This is the end.I fepl goodabout black people. 1 to 7 (1 being strong disagree, 7 being strongly agree) Respondent: 7 Interviewer: I am happy that I am black. Respondent: 7 Interviewer: I feel that blacks have made major accomplishments and advancements. Respondent: 7 Interviewer: I often regret that I am black. Respondent: 1 Interviewer: I am proud to be black. Respondent: 7


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735 736 737 738 739 740 741 742 743 744 745 746 747 748 749 750 751 752 753 754 755 756 757 758 759 760 761 762 763 764 765 766 767 768 769 770 771 772 773 774 775 776 777 778 779 780

Interviewer: I feel that the black community has made valuable contributions to this society. Respondent: 4. Interviewer: 4. Ok. And then the last part. Overall, blacks are considered good by others. Respondent: 5 Interviewer: 5. In general, others respect black people. Respondent: 6 Interviewer: Most people consider blacks, on the average, to be more ineffective than other people. In other words, they look down on them more... Respondent: 1 Interviewer: In general, other people see blacks in a positive manner. Respondent: 7 Interviewer: Society views black people as an asset. Respondent: 1


244

A PPEN D IX C CONSENT FORMS STUDENT CONSENT FORMS May 25,2004 D ea r_______________________________________

,

M y name is Sharon Waters, and I am a doctoral student at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I am inviting you to participate in m y doctoral dissertation research study which w ill explore your television, m ovie, video/D V D view ing habits and your participation with other media such as computers, including the Internet, video games, books and magazines. Your participation w ill add your ideas and voice to the current literature. The follow ing is what w ill happen during this study: • •

•

Y ou w ill be asked to participate in a questionnaire that you may record your answers or write them. This w ill take about 15 minutes. I w ill ask you certain questions concerning what your favorite television programs, favorite m ovies, videos and concerning your favorite characters in these shows. This w ill take about 30 minutes. I w ill also ask you to draw a picture o f what you think a scientist or engineer looks like and a picture o f how you look when you do science at school. You may color the picture in any w ay you like. This w ill take about 15 minutes.

Y ou decide whether or not you want to be in this study. If you do not want to participate, it w ill not affect you in any way. Your parents have already given his or her permission on the permission slip you took home. I w ill make every effort to protect your privacy. Y ou name w ill not appear on any o f the materials for this study i f you choose to participate. N o one at your school is going to read what you write, see what you draw or hear what you record’ I f you decide to participate in the study, you w ill have the right to stop participating at any time. Y ou w ill not be treated differently i f you decide not to participate or to withdraw from this study. Should you have any questions, concerns or desire further information, please discuss this with your parents and either you or your parents may contact m y advisor, Dr. John Keeler or me at the following: Sharon Campbell Waters 2179 Isabella Drive Chesapeake, V A 23321 (757) 488-7127 (hom e) (757) 328-7339 (cell) I f you decide to participate in this participation.

Dr. John Keeler Chairman, Doctoral Studies Program Regent University 1000 Regent University Drive (757) 226-4248 (office) study, you w ill be given $ 10.00 as a token o f thanks for your

I f you would like to continue, please sign at the bottom o f this letter. Nam e Address T eleph one_____________ Sincerely, Sharon Campbell Waters Doctoral Candidate Regent University


245

APPENDIX C CONSENT FORMS PARENTAL CONSENT FORM October 25, 2004

Dear Parent o f ____________________, M y name is Sharon Campbell Waters and I am a doctoral candidate at Regent University in Virginia Beach. I am writing to invite you and your child to participate in my doctoral dissertation research study. This research w ill explore the influence o f m edia on pre-middle school African American perceptions toward science, mathematics, and technology courses and careers. In addition, it w ill explore your child’s perceptions toward science, engineering and technology character portrayals he or she may have view ed on television or on videos, D V D s, and in the theater and how these portrayals may or may not have affected his attitudes toward math and science classes at school. I am also interested i f such portrayals may influence in any way your child’s career goals. The interview w ill be audiotaped and last approximately 1 hour. For your child’s time, I w ill pay $10.00 for the interview. Attached to this letter are sample questions I w ill ask your child. I f you agree to your child’s participation in this study, please let the CHROME Sponsor who referred you to this opportunity know. I w ill set up a time with the CHROME Sponsor when it is convenient with you and your child to interview him or her. Participation in this study is voluntary. I f you do not want your child to participate, it w ill not affect you or your son, daughter in any way. The collected data w ill be used solely for m y research purposes, w ill be confidential at all tim es and preserved in a secure location. N o personal identifying information w ill be used for any participants in any presentations or papers resulting from the study to assure anonymity. There are minimal risks and/or discomforts associated with this study. Y ou and your child may discontinue participation in the research at any tim e without further obligation. Should you have any questions or need further information, please contact m y advisor, Dr. John Keeler or m e at the following: Sharon Campbell Waters (757) 328-7339 (cell) 2179 Isabella Drive Chesapeake, V A 23321 (757) 4 88-7127

Dr. John Keeler Chairman, Doctoral Studies Program Regent University 1000 Regent University Drive (757) 226-4248

I thank you in advance for taking the tim e to consider your child’s participation in this study. Sincerely, Sharon Campbell Waters Y es, I study. N o, 1 _____________ in this important study.

consent to my child participating in this important

do not provide consent for my child to participate


246

APPENDIX C - CONSENT FORMS CHROME SPONSOR CONSENT FORM

October 25,2004 Dear CHROME Sponsor, I am a doctoral candidate at Regent University and am conducting my dissertation research on the influence of media on pre-middle school African American perceptions toward science, mathematics, and technology courses and careers. The purpose o f this research is to explore the influence television and film-related media portrayals o f scientific disciplines and their practitioners may have on African American children’s intrinsic interests, beliefs, and perceptions towards the scientific endeavor, both academically and occupationally. To conduct this research, I need your assistance. I am interested in interviewing CHROME students from your CHROME club about their television and film, video, DVDviewing habits and about their perceptions and attitudes towards mathematics and science classes in school (technology classes if they are in the 5th grade). Each interview per student will last approximately 1 hour and will be audiotaped. The identity o f each student will remain anonymous throughout the research. For each student’s participation I will pay $10.00 for the interview. The attached “Permission for Child’s Participation” form describes the study and requests the parents’ permission for their child to participate. Any questions pertaining to the attached form or to the research study may be directed to me at the numbers indicated below. I would like to conduct the interviews between October 27 and November 15, 2004. If you could collect the names and numbers of all interested students and let me know the best day to interview him or her, I would be most appreciative. This research has been reviewed by Regent University’s Human Subjects Review Board. You may contact Dr. John Keeler, Chairman o f the Doctoral Studies Program at Regent if you


247

have questions or concerns about the rights o f your students as research participants. His number is 757- 226-4248. I thank you in advance for taking the time to consider your student’s participation in this significant research.

Sincerely,

Sharon Campbell Waters Development and Communications Manager CHROME, Board of Directors Chair Virginia Space Grant Consortium 757-766-5210 (work) 757-328-7339 (cell) 757-488-7127 (home)

CHROME SPONSOR

SCHOOL

TELEPHONE NUMBER


2 48

CHROME DRAW - A- SCIENTIST (URM) DRAWINGS


249

R e p r o d u c e d w ith p e r m is s io n o f t h e c o p y r ig h t o w n e r . F u r t h e r r e p r o d u c tio n p r o h ib ite d w ith o u t p e r m is s io n .





254

R eproduced with perm ission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited w ith o u t perm ission.

255



257

NSF GK-12 DRAW-A-SCIENTIST (URM) DRAWINGS


258






Reproduced w#h p e r i o d of me c o p ^ f owner. Further reproduction pronidited w#hou, permission.



-p u ^ a -S


I

i

I


268

EVERY

EVERY

SEVERAL

SEVERAL

ABOUT

ABOUT

SOMETIMES

SOMETIMES

DAY

DAY

TIMES

TIMES

ONCE A

ONCE A

BUT LESS

BUT LESS

WEEKLY

WEEKLY

WEEK

WEEK

THAN ONCE

THAN ONCE

WEEKLY

WEEKLY

NEVER

NEVER

Medium

Cr

GK-12

Cr

GK-12

Cr

GK-12

Cr

GK-12

Cr

GK-12

TV

10

16

4

1

0

0

1

2

0

0

Movies

0

0

0

2

3

2

11

15

1

0

1

3

2

10

10

1

1

5

1

0

Read Books

8

3

3

3

2

10

2

2

0

1

Read

3

2

1

3

6

3

3

5

2

6

Use computer

3

5

3

1

3

4

3

4

3

5

Play with

3

8

1

2

5

2

5

5

1

2

(Theater) Videos/ DVDs/ Pay-Per-View

Magazine

video games

1 (N= 34; 13 boys; 21 girls; 1 White fem ale, 1 White Male, 1 Native American fem ale; 1 M ultiracial [Black/W hite] fem ale)


APPENDIX E - Media U se Findings Table 1;

APPENDIX F

CHROME EDITORIAL Wednesday, February 26, 2003 Editorial Page The Daily Press, p. A-14


Group helps fill need for tomorrow’s engineers Where’s the best place to reach The buzz about tomorrow is that it’s going to be about technology, and teach young people? In schools, innovation and advances in medi of course, and much of CHROME’S cine, in space, in materials that can work is done with and through them. CHROME helps schools run pro change our everyday lives. Where will these discoveries come grams that open students’ eyes to the from? Will the United States be out possibilities of careers they might never have thought of and guide front or struggling to keep up? That depends on how well we train diem in finding out what they need young people for careers in areas to do to get ready for these careers. It starts young. Elementary school that will be the ticket to tomorrow’s discoveries: math, science, technol kids in CHROME dubs discover the ogy and engineering. If America is fun of hands-on science and meet going to meet the demand, it’s going real scientists and engineers. In middle and high school clubs to have to look beyond the tradition the pace picks up, as students start al source for these jobs — as in white laying the academic groundwork for males. That’s where organizations like careers that require a lot of math CHROME come in. CHROME is the and science and start exploring col everyday handle for a group called lege options and lining up intern Cooperating Hampton Roads Orga ships. The front-line troops are the teach nizations for Minorities in Engi neering. ers who sponsor CHROME clubs, The name says two things about which reach about 3,000 students in the group. First, that its goal is to the area. steer minorities into engineering, as For older students, CHROME well as science, math and technolo sponsors college open houses, career gy. What’s a minority? Any group fairs and special Saturday and sum underrepresented in these fields, mer programs such as recent pro including girls and African-Ameri grams at Sandy Bottom park and cans and Hispanics. Buckroe Beach in Hampton and The name also tells who CHROME camps on health and space science is: a regional partnership of organi funded by NASA. It hosts special zations that includes universities, events to honor young people’s labs, businesses, government agen achievements in math and science. cies, school systems and profession CHROME is celebrating its 20th al organizations. Their dedication to year of steering young people toward recruiting young people into their some of tomorrow’s hottest careers. ranks is the reason CHROME has Congratulations on a job well done— been successful. and far from complete.


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note to users - McGill University

note to users - McGill University

Medicare Submitting letters Note to email users

Submitting letters Note to email users - NCBI

NOTE TO USERS - Bibliothèque et Archives Canada

Submitting letters Note to email users - NCBI

NOTE TO USERS - Bibliothèque et Archives Canada

NOTE TO USERS - Bibliothèque et Archives Canada

note to users - TSpace - University of Toronto

note to users - BibliothÃ¨que et Archives Canada

INFOILVJ:aTlON TO USERS a note will indicate - ScholarSpace

Note to Visual Basic for DOS Users - National Instruments

NOTE TO USERS - T-Space - University of Toronto

note to users - BibliothÃ¨que et Archives Canada