Exploring the Foundations of Diversity: A Trans-Cultural Learning Lodge for National Science Foundation Program Directors

提案编号：09- 35936 PI（s）：von Thater-Braan，Rose机构：银布法罗C。 PT.里士满，CA 94801-0000标题： SpProj.：探索多样性的基础：一个跨文化的学习小屋项目建议：这个非常非传统的项目相对集中的观众，旨在教学，培训和学习，发生在更大的学术环境，特别是在美洲原住民（NA）社区。为了增加会议、论文和基于讲座的学习的更正式的方法，该项目打算在更个人的网络层面上加强对科学界的理解。使用苏格拉底方法与对话过程相结合应该鼓励重新关注人与人之间的面对面学习，超越iPhone，Facebook，短信和当今世界更常用的基于互联网的工具。这项工作通过为更广泛的NA社区，甚至整个大学社区和政府机构的不同群体选择的研讨会，使成果得到更广泛的传播。该提案指出：“跨文化学习之所以严谨，主要是因为它要求我们摒弃未经检验的假设，并揭示我们看待彼此的文化透镜。因此，这项工作构成了一项教育政策的努力，提供了几个集中在科学，工程和教育政策和战略的“会议”。“会议”的基本概念是美洲原住民的概念，使用论坛、小屋或广泛的讨论，在讨论和听取任何决定或异议之前，讨论主题领域的所有方面。由于这种想法被用于蒙古和中亚等地（例如，阿富汗的lawya jurga），这一概念很可能起源于亚洲。这种会议的NA形式在项目中以“小屋”的形式表达。这项工作有可能创造一个更广泛的理解，更非正式的技术被称为'谈话圈'在'印度的国家。就其性质而言，拟议的会议是多样化的，对科学、工程和教育范围内的所有学科领域开放。将举办各种活动，邀请NSF人员和一些PI参加，土著科学家，学者，教育工作者和传统知识持有者将参加，目的是让与会者了解土著学习过程，文化和知识，从而开辟新的思维方式和以不同方式对待知识和生活的其他文化。该项目鼓励科学工作的多样性，包括参与科学的人员和科学研究的方法。这项工作使人们能够理解知识的替代来源，并产生“共同的观点，从激进的新方法可以解决共同持有的目标。更广泛的影响：这个项目是关于更广泛的影响。在过去的三年中，美国工程教育学会（www.asee.org）一直专注于类似的“对话年”方法，在会员之间增加非正式网络方面取得了良好的效果，并在公司会员理事会内建立了几个特别兴趣小组（SIG）。学习小屋通过涵盖多样性，K-12和终身学习论坛的外展展示了同样的成功潜力。

Proposal #: 09-35936PI(s): von Thater-Braan, RoseInstitution: Silver Buffalo C. Pt. Richmond, CA 94801-0000 Title: SpProj.: Exploring the Foundations of Diversity: A Trans-Cultural Learning LodgeProject Proposed:This very non-traditional project for a relatively focused audience, aiming to teach, train, and learn, takes place across the larger academic environment, particularly within the Native American (NA) communities. To augment the more formal methodologies of conferences, papers, and lecture-based learning, the project intends to enhance understanding for the scientific community on a more personal network level. Using the Socratic method combined with the dialog processes should encourage a renewed focus on people-to-people, face-to-face learning beyond iPhone, Facebook, texting, and internet-based tools more commonly used in today's world. The work enables broader dissemination of results through selected workshops for the wider NA community, and even diverse groups across the university community and government agencies. The proposal states: 'Trans-cultural learning is rigorous primarily because it requires suspension of unexamined assumptions and reveals the cultural lens through which we view one another.' Thus, the work constitutes an educational policy effort, offering several 'convenings' focused on science, engineering, and educational policies and strategies. The basic concept of the 'convenings,' a Native American Concept, uses a forum, a lodge, or a wide-area discussion at which all aspects of the topic area are discussed and heard before any decisions or dissentions are admitted. Since this idea is used in places like Mongolia and Central Asia (e.g., the lawya jurga of Afghanistan), the concept may well be Asian in origin. The NA form of such meetings is couched in the form of 'lodges' in the project. The work has the potential for creating a broader understanding of a more informal technology known as 'talking circles' in 'Indian Country.' By its very nature, the proposed meetings are diverse and open to all subject areas within the umbrella of science, engineering, and education. Various events will be held to which NSF personnel and some PIs will be invited and at which Native scientists, scholars, educators, and traditional knowledge holders would attend with the purpose of exposing the attendees to the Native learning processes, culture, and knowledge, thus opening new ways of thinking and other cultures that approach knowledge and life in different ways. The project encourages diversity in science endeavors, both among the people involved in science and in the approaches to scientific research. The work enables understanding alternative sources of knowledge and generates 'shared perspectives from which radical new approaches may address commonly held goals.'Broader Impacts: This project is all about broader impact. In the past three years the American Society of Engineering Education (www.asee.org) has focused on a similar 'year of dialog' approach with excellent results in increased informal networking among the members and has established several Special Interest Groups (SIGs) within the Corporate Member Council. The Learning Lodge exhibits the same potential for success via outreach encompassing diversity, K-12, and life-long learning forums.