Historically Underrepresented Graduate Students' Experiences During the COVID‐19 Pandemic

• Published date: 01 October 2021
• Author: Bridget A. Walsh,Tricia A. Woodliff,Julie Lucero,Sheena Harvey,Melissa M. Burnham,Teysha L. Bowser,Matthew Aguirre,David W. Zeh
• Date: 01 October 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12574

B A. W, T A. W, J L, S H,

M M. B, T L. B, M A  D W. Z University

of Nevada, Reno

Historically Underrepresented Graduate Students’

Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objective: The purpose of this study was to

understand the experiences of historically

underrepresented graduate students, more than

half of whom were enrolled in science, tech-

nology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)

disciplines, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This focus group study representsan initial stage

in developing an intervention for historically

underrepresented graduate students and their

families.

Background: Underrepresentation of graduate

students of color in STEM has been attributed to

a myriad of factors, including a lack of support

systems. Familial support is an endorsed reason

for persisting in graduate school. It is unclear

what historically underrepresented graduate

students’ experiences are during uncertain

times, such as a pandemic.

Method: Focus groups were conducted online

using a videoconferencing platform dur-

ing the COVID-19 pandemic. Five focus

groups included: historically underrepre-

sented doctoral students (n=5), historically

underrepresented master’s students (n=6),

academic faculty (n=7), administrator, admin-

istrative faculty, and academic faculty (n=6),

and families of historically underrepresented

Department of Human Development, Family Science, and

Counseling, MS 0140, University of Nevada, Reno, NV

89557 (bridgetw@unr.edu).

KeyWords: historically underrepresentedgraduate students,

COVID-19, pandemic, experiences,focus groups, resources,

family life.

doctoral students (n=6). Data were analyzed

using thematic analysis.

Results: Historically underrepresented gradu-

ate students experienced difculties in accessing

resources, adjustments to home and family life,

amplication of existing nonnancial issues, and

expressed both fears of and hopes for the future.

Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic exacer-

bated existing inequalities in access to resources

as well as nonnancial family support.

Implications: This study may help normal-

ize historically underrepresented graduate

students’ experiences during the COVID-19

pandemic. The ndings include ideas for

informing families about graduate school that

can enlighten family support efforts for histor-

ically underrepresented graduate students and

their families.

Students from historically underrepresented

and minoritized ethnic and racial groups in the

United States are pursuing graduate education

in greater numbers and face specic challenges

at postsecondary institutions. According to a

report by the Council of Graduate Schools,

racially minoritized students comprised 24.1%

of the noninternational graduate student pop-

ulation in the United States in fall of 2018.1

1Historically underrepresented and minoritized both

refer to racial and ethnic groups. Historically underrep-

resented refers most often to racialized groups who have

historically been minoritized and discriminated against in

Family Relations 70 (October 2021): 955–972 955

DOI:10.1111/fare.12574

956 Family Relations

This was an increase of 1.3% from the previous

year but still not representative of the U.S. pop-

ulation (Okahana & Zhou, 2019). Despite the

increasing number of these graduate students

overall, they continue to be markedly underrep-

resented in science, technology, engineering,

and mathematics (STEM) programs (e.g., Burt

et al., 2019). Given that most institutions of

higher education have historically not served

students of color, we sought to examine the

lived experiences of racially minoritized, as

well as rst-generation and otherwise underrep-

resented graduate students at a large university

in the western United States. While preparing

an intervention for a large study of histori-

cally underrepresented graduate students, the

COVID-19 pandemic commenced, providing

an opportunity to understand the particular

challenges this crisis wrought on our priority

study population.

The challenges faced by graduate students

of color during nonpandemic times—and, con-

versely, the support structures that promote their

success—have been documented in previous

research. Support structures fall into two broad

categories: nonacademic and academic.

Nonacademic supports include family and

peer support systems (Bancroft, 2013; Burt

et al., 2019; Martinez, 2018), while academic

supports include opportunities for mentor-

ship, assistance from undergraduate mentors

with the graduate school application process,

and opportunities for participation in research

projects (Chang et al., 2014; Estrada et al., 2018;

Howard, 2017; Lane, 2016). Working together,

these supports help students persist through

graduate school stressors.

Graduate students of color must overcome

the structural racism in graduate programs that

keeps students of color feeling like foreign-

ers at predominantly White institutions (Burt

et al., 2018, 2019). Persistence, then, requires a

series of support systems that actively work to

combat this marginalization. Mere recruitment

the United States (e.g., Black/African American people,

Native/Indigenous people, Latinx/Chicanx/Hispanic peo-

ple). In the present study, we focused on graduates’ students

of color, rst-generation graduate students, and populations

that are underrepresented in certain disciplines (i.e., women

in STEM). First-generation students are not automati-

cally historically underrepresented. American Indian/Alaska

Native (0.5%), Black/African American (11.8%), Native

Hawaiian/Other Pacic Islander (0.2%), Latinx (11.6%).

of graduate students of color is not sufcient, as

programs and universities must understand how

overt and covert aspects of policy and culture

have an impact on the students’ ability to thrive.

For example, some STEM programs may

reinforce the “ideal worker norm,” which insists

on “commitment to the job through long hours,

unbroken career trajectories, and constant avail-

ability and visibility,” in addition to highlight-

ing the separation of career and work from fam-

ily life or caregiving, thereby endorsing gender

expectations of males as the breadwinners and

women as the caregivers (Kachchaf et al., 2015,

p. 176). This affects graduate students of color,

particularly the career–life balance of women of

color, as they have to navigate family responsi-

bilities or decisions about having a family with

the expectations of uninterrupted long hours and

social expectations of their program, which com-

pounds the social exclusion they may experience

(Kachchaf et al., 2015).

In their study of Black men enrolled in

three engineering graduate programs, Burt

et al. (2019) found that familial support was

among the most endorsed reasons for persisting

in graduate school. Specically,parental encour-

agement, advice, and belief in their student’s

ability and success were noted as particularly

salient. Martinez (2018) similarly concluded

that family support was important to Latino

students’ decisions to apply to doctoral pro-

grams. Although overall support from family is

impactful for graduate students from underrep-

resented backgrounds, the connection of family

and community to the student’s identity is an

important factor as well, as it greatly inuences

students’ social capital in the academic setting

(Holley & Gardner, 2012). First-generation

graduate students often describe having family

members who are confused by their pursuit

of a higher degree in a certain eld and an

overall concern for them to acquire employment

(Holley & Gardner, 2012). In addition, some

rst-generation students from racial/ethnic

backgrounds describe experiencing a disconnect

or gap between their community or where they

grew up and their academic environment, which

also can be felt by their family members (Holley

& Gardner, 2012). These gaps or disconnects

can be related to differences between the two

environments or lack of representation and

knowledge regarding the eld, responsibilities

and expectations, and progression of graduate

school, and they are often exacerbated as the