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实践元社区，以扩大未被充分代表的少数民族在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的参与。提议的元社区反映了美国国家科学基金会人力资源开发（NSF HRD）部门的目标，即显著提高未被充分代表的少数民族成功完成STEM学科学士学位并继续在这些领域进行研究生学习的质量和数量。这个元社区将战略性地扩展现有的STEM Central网络平台，使其有意义地包括NSF HRD首席研究员（pi）的学术作品，他们为拓宽参与理论、研究和实践提供了文化敏感性和权威。美国国家科学基金会人力资源开发项目负责人加入STEM中心，以及他们将贡献的不同观点和专业知识，对于解决、推进和加快当代STEM高等教育改革努力的能力，以应对日益复杂、多元文化和多维挑战至关重要。STEM Central将为来自各种机构类型的STEM教师提供一个“数字栖息地”：1)网络，包括同步和异步；2)扩大机构视角，纳入与扩大参与有关的共同目标、承诺和挑战；3)允许集体和个人反思，以更快的速度创造新知识；4)培养创新的可能性；5)加深职业关系。扩大参与元社区的具体目标是：1)扩展STEM中央网络平台，使其有意地包括NSF HRD的主要研究人员；2)加强主流STEM高等教育中扩大参与专业发展的支持网络。元社区将通过STEM Central在线平台立即影响7000多名STEM教师；并且，通过提供战术工具、策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教室或实验室遇到的成千上万的学生。

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.