Journal Article

Misinterpretation of why black students do not pursue studies in the biological sciences

Madikiza, Kim, Williams, Vivienne, Parrini, Francesca, Witkowski, Ed T.F, Risenga, Ida, Cron, Glynis, Furniss, David, Twine, Wayne, Situngu, Sivu, Pillay, Neville, Reynolds, Chevonne, Archibald, Sally, Glennon, Kelsey L, Fisher, Jolene, Engelbrecht, Hanlie, White, Joseph, Balkwill, Kevin, Scholes, Robert, Sanders, Ma, Weiersbye, Isabel, Byrne, Marcus, Sym, Stuart, Woodford, Darragh, Matimolane, Mapula

2020

Overview

It is unclear whether the methodology was geared to test a specific hypothesis or to find a model that best fit the selected variables. The author's framing of the commentary suggests that it was meant to test the hypothesis that a number of pre-selected variables may influence a student's choice when considering studies in the biological sciences. However, as written, the analytical approach appears to use model selection, rather than test an a priori hypothesis. The author describes variables that appear to be sequentially added to the model before a best-fit model is selected. Instead of using the best-fit models, where 'black South African' is no longer a significant variable, the author makes inferences about each model. Further, the variable that makes the largest contribution to explaining variability in the Regression 2 is 'Agrees 'I support wildlife conservation but have no interest in having a career in it\". At this point, the variable 'black South African' is far from significant and no interaction effect is shown to support that these are linked to the dependent variable.

• Publisher: African Online Scientific Information Systems (Pty) Ltd t/a AOSIS,Academy of Science of South Africa
• Subject: Careers / Data analysis / Data collection / Dependent variables / Environmental protection / Ethics / Hypotheses / Racism / Regression analysis / Science / STEM education / Students / Studies / Values / Variables / Wildlife conservation