Collaborative Research to Understand the Role of Culture, Identity, Epistemology and Bi-Cultural Efficacy in American Indian Educational and Professional Success in STEM

合作研究了解文化、身份、认识论和双文化功效在美洲印第安人 STEM 教育和职业成功中的作用

• 批准号: 1251588
• 负责人: Sarah Echohawk
• 金额: $ 34.75万
• 依托单位: American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES)
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-15 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1251588&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Understand; Role; Culture

This project is an empirical research study using a resiliency-based framework to investigate the factors that contribute to American Indian and Alaska Native (AI-AN) success and achievement in STEM education and careers. The focus is on what makes people successful rather than what makes them fail. It was developed through a partnership between the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), the Office for Community Health (OCH) at the University of New Mexico (UNM), and Northwestern University. The project is also interdisciplinary, partnering researchers from Anthropology, Psychology and Economics/Public Health with AISES to contribute a unique perspective on Native participation in STEM. The aim of this research is to identify the role of culture, individual identity, epistemology and bi-cultural efficacy in this process. The guiding hypothesis is that AI-AN success in STEM is influenced by dynamics of culture, epistemology and individual identity, with the role of bi-cultural efficacy being particularly significant. The researchers are interested in knowing: (a) What factors positively influence AI-AN success in STEM?; (b) What role do the dynamics of culture, epistemology and individual identity play in AI-AN success in STEM and how are these dynamics played-out in individual experience?; and (c) Does bi-cultural efficacy play a role in this process, and if so, what is that role? The proposed collaboration uses a mixed methods design, beginning with an ethnographic approach that will build on advances in knowledge from the extensive literature on deficits and barriers, and nascent research on epistemology, adding new empirical data. The research consciously privileges voices of Native scholars whose experience is not well represented in mainstream perspectives or taken into consideration by policy makers. Adaptive project design through iterative data collection and analysis with synthesis and incorporation of findings from different components ongoing throughout the study will allow for dynamic inclusion of participant input. The study includes four separate but integrated research components: (1) 75 in-depth ethnographic interviews with 25 AI-AN STEM professionals and AISES members, conducted in three iterative sets of 25 each; (2) Three AI-AN undergraduate Student Research Scientists (SRS) from UNM will be mentored in the conduct of 36 peer interviews (12 each) with other AI-AN students; (3) Secondary analysis of unique AISES organizational archive with 35 years of information on more than 6000+ AI-AN involved in STEM; and (4) a preliminary survey will be conducted in year three of the project with 25 AISES members to validate measures of bi-cultural efficacy that contribute to AI-AN success in STEM. The Principal Investigators will mentor Native scholars to develop protocols, collect and analyze data, present findings, and participate as members of the Research Team. A Project Summit in Year Three will disseminate project findings to a broad group of AISES stakeholders. This project will also structure a new role for AISES to play in the STEM community by leveraging the unique position of AISES as a national AI-AN STEM organization and developing data collection protocols and data collection tools the organization can continue to use for research in the future. Results of this research will increase understanding of how AI-AN individuals leverage personal and cultural assets in a way that embraces a congruency between Indigenous culture (Native science) and Western science as they achieve success in STEM. This information will contribute to the literature analyzing issues in AI-AN education and under-representation in STEM and indicate directions for future research. Most importantly, this research may lay the foundation for increasing the proportion of AI-AN scientists. Factors that contribute to success and achievement of AI-AN in STEM are often unrecognized, underappreciated or poorly understood. The improved coherence of interventions that will result from better conceptualization of the strengths and needs of AI-AN students will provide a roadmap for developing best-practice and model-driven programming within universities, improve AI-AN educational outcomes in STEM, and in turn, contribute to improvements in AI-AN individual and community well-being.

该项目是一项实证研究研究，使用基于弹性的框架来调查美国印第安人和阿拉斯加原住民(AI-AN)在STEM教育和职业生涯中取得成功和成就的因素。重点是什么让人们成功，而不是什么让他们失败。它是由美国印第安人科学与工程学会(AISES)、新墨西哥大学(UNM)社区卫生办公室(OCH)和西北大学合作开发的。该项目也是跨学科的，与人类学、心理学和经济学/公共卫生的研究人员合作，为土著参与STEM提供独特的视角。本研究的目的是确定文化、个体认同、认识论和双文化效能感在这一过程中的作用。引导性假设是，人工智能在STEM中的成功受到文化动力、认识论和个体认同的影响，其中双文化效能的作用尤为显著。研究人员感兴趣的是：(A)哪些因素对人工智能--在STEM中的成功产生了积极影响？(B)文化、认识论和个人认同的动态在人工智能--STEM的成功中扮演了什么角色，这些动态是如何在个人体验中发挥作用的？(C)跨文化效能感在这一过程中是否发挥了作用？如果是，这种作用是什么？拟议的合作采用混合方法设计，首先是人种学方法，它将建立在关于赤字和障碍的大量文献的知识进展的基础上，以及关于认识论的新研究，增加新的经验数据。这项研究有意识地优先考虑土著学者的声音，这些学者的经验在主流观点中没有得到很好的代表，或者没有得到政策制定者的考虑。通过迭代数据收集和分析，并在整个研究过程中综合和纳入不同组成部分的调查结果，进行适应性项目设计，从而能够动态纳入参与者的投入。这项研究包括四个独立但综合的研究部分：(1)对25名AI-AN STEM专业人员和ACES成员进行75次深入的人种学访谈，每组25人；(2)来自新墨西哥州大学的三名AI-AN本科生研究科学家(SR)将接受指导，与其他AI-AN学生进行36次同行访谈(每人12名)；(3)对独特的AISS组织档案进行二次分析，其中包含35年来参与STEM的6000多名AI-AN的信息；以及(4)将在项目的第三年对25名ACES成员进行初步调查，以验证有助于人工智能-STEM成功的跨文化效能的衡量标准。首席调查员将指导土著学者制定方案，收集和分析数据，展示研究结果，并作为研究团队的成员参与。第三年的项目首脑会议将向ACES利益攸关方的广泛群体传播项目结果。该项目还将通过利用AISS作为国家人工智能-STEM组织的独特地位，并开发数据收集协议和数据收集工具，使AISS在STEM社区中发挥新的作用，该组织未来可以继续用于研究。这项研究的结果将增加对AI-AN个人如何利用个人和文化资产的理解，在他们在STEM取得成功的同时，接受土著文化(土著科学)和西方科学之间的一致性。这些信息将有助于分析人工智能-AN教育和STEM中代表性不足的问题的文献，并为未来的研究指明方向。最重要的是，这项研究可能为提高AI-AN科学家的比例奠定基础。在STEM中，促成人工智能-AN成功和成就的因素往往没有被认识到、被低估或被很少地理解。通过更好地概念化人工智能的优势和需求，干预措施的连贯性将得到改善，学生将为在大学内制定最佳做法和模型驱动的规划提供路线图，改善人工智能--STEM的教育成果，进而促进人工智能--个人和社区的福祉。