13-1 From Spark to Identity: How Interest Development and Science Identity Pathways Can Shape and Improve Recruitment and Retention Mechanisms in Geoscience Education

Session: Building Connections Between Educators and Geoscientists to Foster the Future Workforce

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Geoscience plays a critical role in addressing societal challenges such as natural hazards, climate change, and resource identification and management. Yet, it remains one of the least diverse and under-enrolled STEM disciplines in higher education. This, in turn, creates a problem for fulfilling the Geoscience workforce demand. Improving recruitment and retention in Geoscience requires a clearer understanding of how student interest develops within formal coursework and how science identity and belonging influence persistence.  

This research examines interest development and science identity development to inform recruitment mechanisms and improve retention in undergraduate geoscience courses. It is grounded in and uses the frameworks of the Four-Phase Model of Interest Development and Science Identity theory. The goals are to examine how course-based interest development can support recruitment into geoscience majors, and how identity-related experiences can support retention and persistence.  

Using a mixed-methods approach, the primary data source is a formal survey administered to undergraduate students enrolled in lower-to-middle level Geoscience courses to measure disciplinary interest, perceived relevance, engagement, belonging, competence, and recognition. Two focus groups with Geoscience students were conducted to contextualize quantitative trends and interpret survey findings. This was aimed at providing insight into how students make meaning of their experiences.   

Preliminary results from surveys indicate that interest in Geoscience is strongly associated with course features emphasizing real-world relevance, environmental application, and active engagement. Higher levels of perceived belonging, recognition by peers and instructors, and confidence in disciplinary competence are associated with stronger intentions to persist in Geoscience coursework and career pathways. Qualitative findings suggest that students develop interest within specific Geoscience course contexts, particularly when coursework emphasized applied environmental problems and discussion-based learning that contrasted with prior experiences in other STEM courses. In these accounts, science identity emerged not from content mastery alone, but from moments of instructor recognition, peer validation, and increased confidence in “thinking like a Geoscientist,” which students described as central to decisions to persist in Geoscience coursework and consider Geoscience-related career pathways.  

These findings suggest that recruitment and retention efforts in Geoscience should prioritize course-level practices that support both interest development and identity affirmation. By aligning instructional design with these mechanisms, Geoscience programs can strengthen the undergraduate pipeline and support more inclusive participation in the field. 

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