GSE/RES: The Role of Social Interaction in the Development of Scientist Identities and the Retention of Undergraduate Women in Science Majors

GSE/RES：社会互动在科学家身份发展和科学专业本科女性保留中的作用

• 批准号: 0624606
• 负责人: Mary Bucholtz
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-15 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0624606&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: GSE; RES; Role; Social; Interaction

This study combines traditional elicitation (survey and interview) methodologies with the ethnographic examination of naturally occurring social interaction in formal and informal educational contexts among undergraduate majors in three disciplines in which they remain underrepresented--physics, chemistry, and mathematics ("science")--in order to determine the sorts of interactions that are most effective in facilitating the development of scientist identities among undergraduate women and retaining them in the national pipeline toward science careers. The project takes advantage of the unique situation of UC Santa Barbara, which delivers science instruction to undergraduates both in a traditional letters and sciences college and in a small, innovative college via a variety of pathways. The selection of UCSB as a research site allows for comparison of science-related social interactions that arise within classroom, laboratory, and informal settings while holding relatively constant many of the variables that would intervene in a cross-institution comparison.It is anticipated that reporting a scientist identity will correlate with displaying such an identity interactionally via linguistic features. It is also hypothesized that the display of a scientist identity will be favored in contexts such as research settings, which allow students to make claims or introduce new information rather than report already established facts. The primary focus of the analysis is on women's experiences and interactions in undergraduate science, but male undergraduate science majors in all three groups are included to provide a cross-gender comparison. It is expected that interactions that promote women's retention in science will also promote men's, and hence the educational recommendations based on the findings will not only help women advance in science careers but will also expand the ranks of U.S. scientists generally.Intellectual merit: A detailed understanding of the specific linguistic and interactional practices that encourage women to adopt scientist identities and to persist in STEM majors is of crucial importance in increasing the number of women seeking careers in STEM. The study builds on existing findings regarding the role of social interaction in undergraduate women's retention in STEM, yet offers a new conceptual and methodological direction for the investigation of this issue by expanding from the domain of reported experiences to the heretofore little-explored arena of naturally occurring science-related social interaction at the undergraduate level. In addition, where a great deal of previous research on gender and undergraduate science education emphasizes factors inhibiting women's pursuit of science, the proposed study focuses on undergraduate women who have made a commitment to science by declaring a science major, in order to discover how daily science-related social interactions contribute to the development of a scientist identity and to retention in the national science pipeline.Broader impacts: The broader impacts of the proposed study will make the findings useful to educators and beneficial to students nationwide. First, the study's combined quantitative and qualitative methods are complementary for the end user as well for analysts: while quantitative data have the advantage of allowing for generalizations that can guide broad strategies of educational policy and practice, qualitative data are concrete, specific, and context-rich, and hence they will be more effective than quantitative evidence in demonstrating to educators, parents, and students the specific interactional practices associated with women's retention in science. The results will be disseminated to the academic research community and through outreach via presentations at high schools, via a website and informational video. These tools will bring the findings to students, parents, educators, and the general public.

本研究将传统的启发（调查和访谈）方法与人种志研究相结合，研究在正式和非正式教育背景下自然发生的社会互动，这些社会互动在三个学科的本科专业中仍然没有得到充分的代表——物理、化学、以及数学（“科学”）——为了确定哪种互动最有效地促进了本科女性科学家身份的发展，并使她们留在全国科学事业的管道中。该项目利用了加州大学圣巴巴拉分校的独特情况，通过各种途径为传统的文理学院和小型创新学院的本科生提供科学教学。选择UCSB作为研究地点，可以比较在课堂、实验室和非正式环境中出现的与科学相关的社会互动，同时保持相对恒定的许多变量，这些变量会影响跨机构的比较。预计报告科学家身份将与通过语言特征互动地展示这种身份相关。还有一种假设是，科学家身份的展示将在诸如研究环境之类的环境中得到青睐，这些环境允许学生提出主张或引入新信息，而不是报告已经确定的事实。分析的主要重点是女性在本科理科专业的经历和互动，但所有三个组的本科理科专业的男性都被包括在内，以提供跨性别比较。预计促进女性留在科学领域的互动也将促进男性留在科学领域，因此基于这些发现的教育建议不仅将帮助女性在科学事业上取得进步，而且还将扩大美国科学家的总体队伍。智力优势：详细了解鼓励女性采用科学家身份并坚持STEM专业的具体语言和互动实践，对于增加寻求STEM职业的女性人数至关重要。本研究建立在社会互动对本科女生留在STEM中的作用的现有发现的基础上，然而，通过从报告经验的领域扩展到迄今为止很少探索的本科阶段自然发生的科学相关的社会互动领域，为这一问题的调查提供了一个新的概念和方法方向。此外，先前关于性别和本科科学教育的大量研究强调了抑制女性追求科学的因素，本研究将重点放在通过宣布科学专业而做出科学承诺的本科女性身上，以发现日常与科学相关的社会互动如何有助于科学家身份的发展和在国家科学管道中的保留。更广泛的影响：拟议研究的更广泛的影响将使研究结果对教育工作者有用，对全国的学生有益。首先，该研究的定量和定性相结合的方法对最终用户和分析师来说是互补的：虽然定量数据的优势在于可以进行概括，从而指导教育政策和实践的广泛战略，但定性数据是具体的、具体的、背景丰富的，因此在向教育工作者、家长和学生展示与女性留在科学领域有关的具体互动实践方面，它们将比定量证据更有效。研究结果将通过在高中的演讲、网站和信息视频传播给学术研究界。这些工具将把研究结果带给学生、家长、教育工作者和公众。