Publication

Explanations for why girls from underrepresented groups (e.g. African American, Hispanic, and Native American) do not enter and/or persist in STEM fields in general and technology disciplines in particular, consider a multitude of factors. Among the suggested reasons, lack of motivation continues to shape much of the discourse and programmatic efforts. Although we come from different disciplines (social justice studies and educational psychology) our training and individual research, as well as our combined efforts on the COMPUGIRLS project have provided us with significant evidence that the above description is a misrepresentation of our girls’ lived experience and the motivational psychological constructs often cited as part of this discussion. Specifically, we argue that the taken-for-granted view of motivation is problematic for two reasons.