Listening for Leaks: Students Story Their Experiences of Undergraduate Psych
University psychology programs seem to steadily ‘leak', so that what starts out as a diverse stream of enrolling undergraduates ends in a more homogeneous trickle. There's limited relevant research on who is at higher risk of leaking out of a psychology program today, but flipping through an undergraduate psychology textbook gives you a good idea of who's likely to make it out the other end (see Meghan, Susannah, Tal, Jacy, & Alex's 2020 paper on androcentrism, or "Intensely White" by Gilborn et al., 2021).
I believe that speaking to undergraduate students about their experiences accessing and progressing through academic psychology will offer important insights about what causes those leaks and what might prevent them.
For my thesis project, I plan to interview undergraduate students who feel disillusioned with York's psychology program, using narrative interviewing and analysis techniques to construct stories of the bridges and barriers to access they've encountered in the program. I will then bring them together to brainstorm what changes might make psychology curricula and pedagogy more inclusive and less harmful. Before I begin interviewing students, I look forward to hearing reactions and suggestions from your various vantage points.
Link: https://yorku.zoom.us/j/96933966177?pwd=SklDdXZ0WnFvcmFyckZXYjdIV3FVUT09