The Transformational STEM Consciousness Scale: A QuantCrit Measure of a Liberatory STEM Outcome

Guided by QuantCrit, we introduce and validate the Transformational STEM Consciousness (TSC) scale, which fuses students' motivation to pursue racial and social justice through STEM with a critique of STEM's historic complicity in inequity. Surveying 255 undergraduate and graduate students in 18 justice‐integrated STEM courses across 11 US institutions, confirmatory factor analysis supported a unidimensional structure. Results also showed evidence of convergent (with equity‐ethic career values, color‐evasive racial attitudes, and STEM‐justice learning behavior) and discriminant validity (weak ties to prestige motives, ethnic identity, and STEM identity). Using hierarchical blocked regression confirmed that color‐evasive racial attitudes and prestige negatively predicted TSC, whereas equity‐ethic, STEM identity, and prior STEM‐justice exposure positively predicted it. TSC offers scholars and practitioners a concise, psychometrically sound tool for transforming the definition of STEM success.