Science of Broadening Participation: Stratification in Academic Career Trajectories

SES-1421090 Roberta Spalt-RothMarie MoraJean Shin美国社会学协会调查人员将完成研究，以更好地进行理论分析，并有助于更好地理解代表不足的少数族裔(URM)的经历，特别是黑人和西班牙裔学者在社会学和经济学高等教育中的经历。这项研究是跨学科的，因为它比较了两个STEM(科学、技术、工程和数学)学科(社会学和经济学)的URM职业轨迹，并整合了各自的主要理论概念。研究结果可提供策略建议，以扩大城市管理硕士的STEM参与度，并增加其成功的学术生涯轨迹的可能性。这两个STEM学科的成功职业轨迹通常被衡量为研究型大学的全职教授职位。因此，这项研究的一个主要目的是衡量在社会学和经济学这两个学科中，可能造成或重新造成代表性不足的少数群体学术生涯轨迹不平等的分层进程和结果的具体方面。作为这一努力的结果，研究人员将开发两个用于“基于证据的”评估的数据库，以及一个将有益于其他科学学科的数据收集和分析模型。这项研究由社会学家和经济学家组成的不同研究团队进行，使用混合方法来发展理论，并衡量这两个学科的学者的轨迹。它将测试几个理论概念之间的相互关系，研究人员认为这些概念是分层过程的各个方面，以及它们是否与职业分层有关。将测试的关键理论概念包括：人力资本和社会资本，包括专业网络和这些网络的边缘；种族和少数民族的“两个世界”和“色彩线”；以及种族、族裔和性别的交叉性。更广泛的影响研究结果很重要，首先，因为强调将URM纳入STEM学科，以便他们能够教授和指导越来越多样化的学生群体，并为研究和政策带来新的视角和范例。这些新观点可能会增加美国的创新和竞争力，并增加美国在特定STEM领域的参与者数量，包括社会、行为和经济科学。其次，鉴于许多机构的兼职教员数量正在增加，谁将获得并成功获得终身教职？鉴于美国人口结构的变化，URM学者作为全职终身教员的更大代表性尤为重要。黑人和西语裔加在一起，占总人口的近30%，但在学位授予机构的所有全职教职员工中只占9.6%。这项研究将评估目前旨在增加URM在学院的参与度(招聘)和职业发展(留住)的干预计划，但也将提出新的干预措施和战略。研究结果将被广泛传播，以便根据社会学和经济学的跨学科理论，为如何改进跨STEM学科的项目和政策提供见解。这项研究还将培训一批本科生和研究生，以帮助开展研究的所有方面，包括接触到多种研究方法和类型的数据分析。

SES-1421090Roberta Spalter-RothMarie MoraJean ShinAmerican Sociological AssociationThe investigators will complete research that will better theorize and contribute to better a understanding of the experiences of underrepresented minorities (URMs), especially black and Hispanic scholars in higher education in sociology and economics. The study is interdisciplinary in that it compares URM career trajectories in two STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines (sociology and economics), and integrates major theoretical concepts from each. The results can suggest strategies to broaden STEM participation for URMs and increase the likelihood of their successful academic career trajectories. Successful career trajectories in these two STEM disciplines are normatively measured as full professorships at research-extensive universities. As such, a major purpose of the study is to measure specific aspects of the stratification processes and outcomes that may create or re-create inequalities in the academic career trajectories of underrepresented minorities in two disciplines: sociology and economics. As a result of this effort, the researchers will develop two databases for "evidence-based" evaluations as well as a model for data collection and analysis that will benefit other science disciplines. The study, conducted by a diverse research team of sociologists and economists, uses a mixed-methods approach to develop theory and measure trajectories of scholars from both disciplines. It will test the interrelationships between several theoretical concepts that the investigators argue are aspects of stratification processes, and whether they are associated with career stratification. The key theoretical concepts that will be tested include the following: human capital and social capital including professional networks and marginality to those networks; "two worlds" and the "color line" for racial and ethnic minorities; and the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender. Broader Impacts The study findings are important, first, because of the emphasis on bringing URMs into STEM disciplines so that they can teach and mentor an increasingly diverse body of students as well as bring new perspectives and paradigms to research and policy. These new perspectives may have the effect of increasing U.S. innovation and competitiveness, as well as increasing the number of U.S. participants in specific STEM fields, including the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. Second, given that the number of adjunct faculty is on the rise at many institutions, who will obtain and succeed in tenure-track positions? A greater representation of URM scholars as full-time, tenured faculty is particularly important in light of changing demographics in the U.S. population. Combined, blacks and Hispanics represent nearly 30 percent of the entire population, but only 9.6 percent of all full-time faculty members in degree-granting institutions. The study will evaluate current intervention programs designed to increase participation (recruitment) and bolster careers (retention) of URMs in the academy, but also propose new interventions and strategies. The research results will be widely disseminated in order to provide insights into how to improve programs and policies across STEM disciplines, based on interdisciplinary theory from sociology and economics. The study will also train a group of undergraduate and graduate students to aid in carrying out all aspects of the study, including exposure to multiple research methods and types of data analysis.