Assessing Racial/Ethnic and Gender Gaps in Political Science PhD Students’ Methodological Self-Efficacy

Amy Erica Smith,Heidi Hardt,Shauna N Gillooly

doi:10.1017/s1049096521001116

Abstract

ABSTRACTMost research on diversity within political methodology focuses on gender while overlooking racial and ethnic gaps. Our study investigates how race/ethnicity and gender relate to political science PhD students’ methodological self-efficacy, as well as their general academic self-efficacy. By analyzing a survey of 300 students from the top 50 US-based political science PhD programs, we find that race and ethnicity correlate with quantitative self-efficacy: students identifying as Black/African American and as Middle Eastern/North African express lower confidence in their abilities than white students. These gaps persist after accounting for heterogeneity among PhD programs, professional and socioeconomic status, and preferred methodological approach. However, small bivariate gender gaps disappear in multivariate analysis. Furthermore, gaps in quantitative self-efficacy may explain racial/ethnic disparities in students’ broader academic self-efficacy. We argue that the documented patterns likely lead to continued underrepresentation of marginalized groups in the political methodology student body and professoriate.

Highlights

R ecruiting and retaining a diverse workforce is a persistent challenge in academia
Whereas 4.5% of American Political Science Association (APSA) membership identifies as Black or African American, the analogous percentage in the political methodology section is only 1.3% (Hidalgo et al 2018)
Identification as Black/African American versus white is associated with a larger reduction in quantitative self-efficacy than attending a 50th-ranked versus a first-ranked PhD program

Summary

Introduction

R ecruiting and retaining a diverse workforce is a persistent challenge in academia. Within political science, this difficulty has been pronounced in the political methodology subfield. Whereas the stark facts of both gender and racial/ethnic underrepresentation in political methodology are well understood, most relevant research explores and explains gender diversity. This article investigates racial/ethnic and gender gaps in political science PhD students’ attitudes toward political methodology. This article discusses responses to survey questions concerning students’ interest and self-efficacy with respect to qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as their academic success by affecting an individual’s decision to undertake new activities with uncertain outcomes and to persist in the face of initial difficulties or temporary failures. Research-related self-efficacy may affect engagement in research and dissertation completion We expected students’ perceptions of their quantitative skills to influence their actual and self-perceived prospective academic success more strongly than their qualitative skills

Methods

Results

Conclusion