Toward More Challenge-Engaging STEM Students: A Narrative Inquiry into Student Persistence in the Face of Failure

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) postsecondary graduates greatly contribute to advances in technology and research, and STEM fields promise graduates careers with positive long-term outcomes. Many postsecondary students initially choose STEM majors; however, less than half of those students graduate with a STEM degree. High STEM attrition is a problem that continues to vex educators and researchers. One attributable factor to high STEM attrition is students adversely reacting to initial academic failure in challenging STEM educational contexts. However, there are a lack of studies that investigate the individual experiences of students who persist despite academic failure to better understand how and why they persist. The purpose of this qualitative, narrative study was to investigate the phenomenon of academic recovery from academic failure within STEM educational settings through studying the lived experiences of STEM students who endured academic probation, persisted, and ultimately graduated with a STEM degree. Henry et al.’s (2019) failure mindset coping model was utilized as a theoretical framework to undergird the conceptualization, inquiry, and analysis of this study. Additionally, the narrative inquiry theoretical foundation of experience as a knowledge source guided this study. The study participants were five recent graduates from one public, mid-Atlantic, four-year university in the United States who received bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields and who also experienced a period of academic probation. Data collection consisted of two rounds of semi-structured interviews. Presented participant narratives and thematic analysis showed the participants in this study mostly adopted positive coping mechanisms post-failure which greatly contributed to their ability to recover academically and persist to graduation. These findings deviated from the failure mindset coping model which would suggest maladaptive coping and negative outcomes based on participant sentiments pre-failure. The findings support the literature on community as a stalwart of student support and resilience, inform higher education personnel on how students persist through academic difficulty, and outline measures that may help students persist in rigorous STEM disciplines in general. Additionally, this study emphasizes the importance of investigative measures utilizing individual students’ lived experiences to understand and address challenges in higher education.