Education and psychology research has established STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) identities as an important factor in explaining student persistence in STEM fields. Few studies in social psychology of language or communication have investigated STEM identities, despite the fundamentally communicative nature of identity. Identity talk produced in semi-structured interviews with undergraduate engineering majors (N = 16) at three U.S. universities was analyzed qualitatively using the Communication Theory of Identity (CTI) as a sensitizing framework. The analysis showed that these students’ STEM identities emphasized personal attributes such as work ethic and a desire to make a positive difference in the world as well as relationships with peers in engineering. A number of potential identity gaps which might present barriers to forming a STEM identity were also evident in the data. These results underscore the importance of a communicative (interactive and relational) perspective in understanding students’ development and expression of STEM identities.

教育和心理学研究已将 STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）身份确定为解释学生坚持 STEM 领域的重要因素。尽管身份具有基本的交流性质，但很少有语言或交流的社会心理学研究调查 STEM 身份。在与本科工程专业的半结构化访谈中产生的身份谈话 ( N = 16) 在三所美国大学中使用身份传播理论 (CTI) 作为敏感框架进行了定性分析。分析表明，这些学生的 STEM 身份强调个人属性，例如职业道德和对世界产生积极影响的愿望以及与工程领域的同行的关系。数据中也很明显存在一些可能对形成 STEM 身份构成障碍的潜在身份差距。这些结果强调了交流（互动和关系）视角在理解学生发展和 STEM 身份表达方面的重要性。