**4.2 Participants**

Participants (see **Table 1**) were purposefully selected [53]. The criteria used for selection were (1) female graduates of the STEM school who joined engineering schools in higher education, (2) lived in the United States at the time of the study as the first author was there doing his doctorate, (3) came from different geographical locations in Egypt to reflect the different socio-cultural background of different locations in the country, and (4) from the first cohort of girls at the STEM high school to reflect both the challenges and success of the introduction of STEM schools. Selecting students living in the United States was a delimitation as a response to logistics reasons. Five graduates who pursued engineering at higher education in the United States were selected.

#### **4.3 Data collection**

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the five participants. One of the interviews was done face to face, while the other four interviews were


**95**

*Gender Equity in STEM Education: The Case of an Egyptian Girls' School*

was it like?

mother's?

consider?

mathematics, science?

in middle school?

**RQ Sample interview questions**

conducted using Skype. Interview questions were designed to inform the research questions and address the different aspects of the conceptual framework of the

How would you describe your experience at the STEM school? How was working with girls from different backgrounds for you? What

Describe how were teachers' teaching approaches different?

How was assessment different from those in your previous school, if at all?

Tell me a little about your family? What is your father's occupation? Your

What were your major interests before joining STEM school, literature,

Tell me a little bit about how you thought about mathematics and science

If the MoE decided to build more STEM schools, what would they

What was special about the school's curriculum?

The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded. Content and relational inductive open coding was conducted vertically (for each participant) and horizontally (across the different participants) [54]. Next, axial coding was used to identify emerging themes. The data was revisited multiple times to make sure that the emerging themes and subsequent assertions were backed by the participants' words

An in-depth data analysis was used to synthesize the findings between the separate cases to understand similarities and differences among them [54]. These final themes were then connected to the theoretical and conceptual framework of the pertinent research on gender equity in STEM [2, 6, 23, 26, 43]. Ultimately, a contextualized intersectional argument depicting a layered pattern of supports and

In this section, cross-case narrative and analysis of the participants' unique experiences is provided. The themes that emerged from this cross-case analysis are discussed in depth providing an intersectional pattern of supports and barriers to gender (in) equity in STEM education in this study's context. **Table 3** portrays these emerging themes. The themes are categorized into three levels: family and social;

The interaction between the social and personal power dynamics among the participants revealed a direct relationship between family bias and the girls'

barriers for equity in STEM education in this case emerged.

**5.2 Emerging themes for the cross-case analysis**

*5.2.1 Family supports and barriers versus personal choices*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.87170*

*Sample interview questions aligned with research questions.*

What experiences did the graduates of the Egyptian STEM high school have that motivated them pursue STEM fields in higher education?

What were the underlying personal, social, and school components that made these STEM experiences successful?

study (see **Table 2**).

**Table 2.**

**5. Data analysis**

and perspectives.

**5.1 Findings**

personal; and school.

#### **Table 1.**

*The participants' names, geographical locations, family background and HE majors.*


**Table 2.**

*Theorizing STEM Education in the 21st Century*

education in the United States were selected.

**4.2 Participants**

**4.3 Data collection**

**Name\* Where** 

Muneera Upper

*Names are pseudonyms.*

**from**

Egypt

The first author started working at the STEM school for girls in the second semester of its first year as a teacher of English as a foreign language. Subsequently, he took over the role of a coordinator of professional development for the teachers and supervising the students' capstone STEM projects completed each semester. This experience lasted for three consecutive years where he had built very good relations with students and teachers alike. This provided a rich understanding of the school context and familiarity for the participants in sharing their experiences. An exploratory, descriptive intrinsic single case study design [52] was used as the purpose of the research was to look at the experiences of the STEM girls in its entirety including social, school, and personal aspects corresponding to the nature of an intrinsic case study wherein the participant, in this case the female STEM graduates, itself is the primary interest [52]. In this case study, the individual female participants represent the units of analysis. The study was reflective and retrospective in nature as the participants graduated from the school 3 years ago. This provided a robust design as the participants had a chance to reflect on the impact of their experiences at the STEM school on their learning at the university level.

Participants (see **Table 1**) were purposefully selected [53]. The criteria used for selection were (1) female graduates of the STEM school who joined engineering schools in higher education, (2) lived in the United States at the time of the study as the first author was there doing his doctorate, (3) came from different geographical locations in Egypt to reflect the different socio-cultural background of different locations in the country, and (4) from the first cohort of girls at the STEM high school to reflect both the challenges and success of the introduction of STEM schools. Selecting students living in the United States was a delimitation as a response to logistics reasons. Five graduates who pursued engineering at higher

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the five participants. One of the interviews was done face to face, while the other four interviews were

Alia Cairo Father is an engineer Biomedical

mother is a teacher and brother is an engineer

Latifa Delta Father is a civil servant and mother is a language teacher Computer

Both father and mother are high school education level and all her siblings are medical school graduates or

Aida Cairo Father is an engineering professor and mother is in management position

Fareeda Delta Father passed away while at elementary student and

students

*The participants' names, geographical locations, family background and HE majors.*

**Parents' background HE major**

Computer Engineering

Engineering

Engineering

Biomedical Engineering

Chemical Engineering

**94**

*\**

**Table 1.**

*Sample interview questions aligned with research questions.*

conducted using Skype. Interview questions were designed to inform the research questions and address the different aspects of the conceptual framework of the study (see **Table 2**).
