GSE/RES- Collaborative Research - Practical Logic of STEM Career Choice: A Critical Interpretive approach to profiling IT Career Pathways of African American Males at HBCUs

GSE/RES- 合作研究 - STEM 职业选择的实用逻辑：一种批判性解释方法来分析 HBCU 中非裔美国男性的 IT 职业道路

• 批准号: 1232344
• 负责人: Lynette Yarger
• 金额: $ 24.51万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1232344&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: GSE; RES; Collaborative; Research; Practical

Intellectual Merit: This research study focuses on critically examining and tracing the career pathways of successful African American male college students who have opted to pursue IT-related careers. Grounded in the theory of power and practice posited by Pierre Bourdieu, the study uncovers the practical logics that African American men employ when making career choices to pursue IT-related disciplines. The sample consists of 100 African American male students who have expressed interest in IT careers and who are currently enrolled at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). A small sample of African American men at Predominantly White Institutions is also included. The researchers use a critical interpretive approach in which concepts of capital, field and habitus are employed as a framework to build and verify midrange theories about this historically underserved group's engagement with IT by focusing on group-level experiences that influence their decision to pursue an IT career. The research includes conducting person-centered analysis that is well grounded in theory and employs rigorous qualitative approaches. The proposed work contributes to the limited literature on African American men's academic success and helps clarify some of the mixed and contradictory findings about their career choices that exist in the current literature. Broader Impacts: The results of this research reveal how and which social structures enable or constrain African American men's IT-related career choices; information which may be useful to policy makers, teachers and school counselors, and that may inform the creation of innovative interventions. Findings may also contribute to the increase in the STEM workforce while expanding the career options for African American men who are historically disproportionately affected by economic downturns. The research continues a collaboration between Washington State University and Pennsylvania State University as well as strengthens ongoing partnerships with the four participating HBCUs.

知识分子的优点：这项研究的重点是批判性地检查和追踪成功从事与IT相关的职业的成功非裔美国男性大学生的职业途径。这项研究基于皮埃尔·布迪厄（Pierre Bourdieu）提出的权力和实践理论，发现了非洲裔美国男人在追求与IT相关学科的职业选择时所采用的实用逻辑。该样本由100名非洲裔美国学生组成，他们对IT职业表达了兴趣，并且目前已入学到历史悠久的黑人学院和大学（HBCUS）。 还包括一个主要是白人机构的非裔美国人样本。研究人员使用一种关键的解释方法，在这种方法中，资本，田地和习惯的概念被用作建立和验证有关这个历史悠久的小组与该群体的参与的中等范围理论，通过专注于影响他们从事IT职业的决定的团体级别经验。该研究包括进行以人为本的分析，这些分析基于理论并采用了严格的定性方法。拟议的工作为非洲裔美国男子的学术成就的有限文献做出了贡献，并有助于阐明有关当前文献中其职业选择的一些混合和矛盾的发现。更广泛的影响：这项研究的结果揭示了如何以及哪些社会结构能够启用或限制非裔美国人与IT相关的职业选择；可能对政策制定者，教师和学校辅导员有用的信息，这可能会为创建创新的干预措施提供信息。调查结果也可能有助于STEM劳动力的增加，同时扩大历史上受经济低迷影响的非裔美国人的职业选择。这项研究继续华盛顿州立大学和宾夕法尼亚州立大学之间的合作，并加强了与四个参与的HBCU的持续合作伙伴关系。