Collaborative research: Variation in the awarding and effectiveness of STEM graduate student funding across teaching and research assistantships, fellowships, and traineeships

德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校、弗吉尼亚理工学院和州立大学的研究人员将开展一项混合方法研究项目，以更好地了解各种资助机制--奖学金、研究助理奖学金、助教奖学金等--如何影响学生在STEM攻读博士学位和随后的就业。该项目将提供经验证据和概念框架，通过解决向不同学生群体提供的资助类型的差异，为改善研究生资助政策和干预措施提供信息。研究人员将使用获得博士学位调查(SED)的全国数据调查定性问题，然后使用这些数据为研究地点内的进一步调查提供问题信息，通过采访八个STEM学科和八个机构的七个NSF资助中心的研究生、管理人员和教职员工来收集数据。研究人员将使用社会化理论来指导研究。假设资助机制是社会化的重要驱动力，研究人员将调查以下研究问题：(1)研究生如何？资助机制因其入学特征(如人口统计和学士或硕士院校类型、地点或隶属关系)和STEM学科而不同？(2)研究生资助机制与他们的博士后成果之间的关系是什么？(3)研究生资助机制和他们的博士后成果之间的关系如何在他们的入学特征和STEM学科上有所不同？(4)STEM研究生、教职员工和管理人员认为各种研究生资助机制的优点和缺点是什么？每一组如何决定提供或接受不同资助机制？(5)资助机制如何影响STEM研究生？经历、社交、身份形成和其他以前被证明有助于全面成功的因素？这项分析将提供关于社交机会对某些学生群体可能产生的差异的洞察，而不是对其他学生群体的差异。此外，研究结果将为扩大STEM参与的干预措施提供参考。该项目得到了ECR计划的支持，该计划强调STEM教育的基础研究，以产生该领域的基础知识。在基本、广泛和持久的关键领域进行投资：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大STEM的参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。ECR支持积累强有力的证据，为理解、建立解释理论和提出干预和创新建议提供信息，以应对STEM兴趣、教育、学习和参与方面的持续挑战。

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University will conduct a mixed methods research project to better understand how various mechanisms of funding - fellowships, research assistantships, teaching assistantships, etc. - influence students' pursuit of doctorates in STEM and subsequent employment. The project will produce empirical evidence and a conceptual framework to inform the improvement of graduate student funding policies and interventions by addressing the differences in the types of funding that are offered to diverse student populations. The researchers will investigate the qualitative questions using national data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) and then use that data to inform questions for further investigation within the study sites for data collection via interviews with graduate students, administrators and faculty members across eight STEM disciplines and seven NSF-funded centers at eight institutions. The researchers will use socialization theory to guide the research. Hypothesizing that funding mechanisms are important drivers of socialization, the researchers will investigate the following research questions:(1) How do graduate students? funding mechanisms vary across their incoming characteristics (i.e. demographics and bachelor's or master's institutional type, location, or affiliation) and STEM discipline? (2) What is the relationship between graduate students' funding mechanisms and their post-doctoral outcomes? (3) How does the relationship between graduate students' funding mechanisms and their post-doctoral outcomes vary across their incoming characteristic and STEM discipline? (4) What do STEM graduate students, faculty members, and administrators perceive to be the benefits and drawbacks of various graduate student funding mechanisms? How does each group make decisions about offering or accepting offers of different funding mechanisms?(5) How does funding mechanism impact STEM graduate students? experiences, socialization, identity formation, and other factors previously shown to contribute to overall success? The analysis will provide insight about the difference socialization opportunities may have for certain groups of students but not others. In addition, the research results will inform interventions for broadening participation in STEM. The project is supported by the ECR program that emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. ECR supports the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to understand, build theory to explain, and suggest intervention and innovations to address persistent challenges in STEM interest, education, learning and participation.