Metacommunity for Broadening Participation in STEM Undergraduate Education

美国学院和大学协会(AAC&Amp；U)及其万花筒项目(PKAL)提议建立一个交错的元实践社区，以扩大未被充分代表的少数群体对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)的参与。拟议的元社区反映了国家科学基金会人力资源发展司(NSF HRD)的目标，即显著提高成功完成STEM学科学士学位并继续在这些领域进行研究生学习的未被充分代表的少数群体的质量和数量。这个元社区将战略性地扩展现有的STEM中心网络平台，以便有意义地包括NSF人力资源开发主要调查者(PI)的学术作品，他们为扩大参与理论、研究和实践提供了文化敏感性和权威性。国家科学基金会人力资源开发私人投资机构加入STEM Central受到欢迎，他们将贡献不同的视角和专业知识，这对于解决、推进和加快当代STEM高等教育改革努力的能力至关重要，以应对日益复杂的、多文化和多层面的挑战。STEM Central将为各种机构的STEM教师提供“数字栖息地”：1)建立同步和异步的网络；2)扩大机构视角，包括与扩大参与相关的共同目标、承诺和挑战；3)允许集体和个性化思考，以更快的速度创造新知识；4)促进创新可能性；5)深化专业联系。扩大参与的元社区的具体目标是：1)扩大STEM中央网络平台，使之有意义地包括NSF人力资源开发的主要研究人员；以及2)加强支持网络，以扩大主流STEM高等教育中的参与和专业发展。元社区将通过STEM中心在线平台立即影响7,000名STEM教师；并通过提供战术工具、战略和评估方法来扩大参与和衡量其有效性，直接或间接地影响这些教师在课堂或实验室遇到的数万名学生。

The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and its Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) propose to develop an interlacing metacommunity of practice for broadening participation of underrepresented minorities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The proposed metacommunity mirrors the goals of the National Science Foundation Human Resource Development (NSF HRD) Division to significantly increase the quality and quantity of underrepresented minorities who successfully complete baccalaureate degrees in STEM disciplines, and who continue on to graduate studies in these fields. This metacommunity will strategically expand the existing STEM Central web platform to meaningfully include the scholarly works of NSF HRD principal investigators (PIs), who lend both cultural sensitivity and authority to broadening participation theory, research, and practice. The welcomed addition of NSF HRD PIs to STEM Central, and the diverse perspectives and expertise that they will contribute, are critical in addressing, advancing and accelerating the capacity of contemporary STEM higher education reform efforts to meet increasingly complex, multicultural, and multidimensional challenges. STEM Central will provide a "digital habitat" for STEM faculty from a broad range of institution types to: 1) network, both synchronously and asynchronously; 2) expand institutional perspectives to include shared goals, commitments and challenges related to broadening participation; 3) allow for collective and individualized reflection that can create new knowledge at a faster pace; 4) foster innovative possibilities; and 5) deepen professional connections. The specific objectives of the Metacommunity for Broadening Participation are to:1) expand the STEM Central web platform to meaningfully include NSF HRD principal investigators; and 2) enhance a network of support for broadening participation professional development within mainstream STEM higher education. The metacommunity will immediately impact 7,000+ STEM faculty through the STEM Central online platform; and, either directly or indirectly, impact the tens of thousands of students these faculty encounter, in the classroom or laboratory, by providing tactical tools, strategies, and evaluation methodologies for broadening participation and measuring its effectiveness.