African American Students' Sociocultural Experiences, Motivation, Identity and Performance in Math

研究表明，平均而言，非裔美国学生在STEM标准化考试中表现不佳，尽管有必要的能力，但选择退出高级课程，并选择在大学主修非STEM领域，尽管有相关的准备。该项目将使用主要的定量分析和补充的定性分析相结合的方法来研究非洲裔美国中学生在数学方面的耻辱经历、发展性别和种族身份、在家中和学校与成年人的种族社会化经历以及数学能力信念和价值观的动机结构之间的相互关系。为扩大非裔美国学生参与STEM的努力提供信息，有必要使用组内设计进行更多研究，并同时考虑种族和性别。定量分析将调查这一复杂的相互关系系统以及这些动态随时间的发展，而补充的定性分析将探索手头的精确效应机制和这些途径之间的定性不同的交叉效应。整个项目代表了纵向，多信息研究，使用深度访谈，以补充调查数据分析的报告，从学生，家长和教师。该项目的目标是6至8年级，这是学生在形成身份和数学动机方面的关键发展时刻。这些技术的结合将最终揭示如何种族和性别相关的经验相互关联，以塑造非洲裔美国人的早期青少年的动机和成就math.broader影响：这项研究将推进研究非洲裔美国人青少年的动机过程和社会文化和上下文相关的成就在数学上下文。此外，本研究将确定以中学为基础的经验可以影响个人和背景因素的方式，旨在促进非洲裔美国青少年的高数学成绩和持久性的努力是可塑的。最后，该项目与当地学区的伙伴关系将增加互惠关系的可能性，研究团队可以继续从这些学校环境中学习，并帮助解决学校遇到的挑战，并做出基于实践的回应。

Research has shown that, on average, African American students perform less well on STEM standardized tests, opt out of advanced coursework despite requisite ability, and choose to major in non-STEM fields in college despite relevant preparation. This project will use a combination of a primary quantitative analysis and a supplemental qualitative analysis to examine the interrelations between African American middle school students' experiences of stigma in math, developing gender and racial identities, racial socialization experiences with adults at home and in school, and motivational constructs of competence beliefs and values in math.Intellectual Merit: To inform efforts to broaden STEM participation among African American students, there is a need for more research using within-group designs and attending to race and gender simultaneously. The quantitative analysis will investigate this complex system of interrelations and the development over time of these dynamics, while a supplemental qualitative analysis will explore both the precise effect mechanisms at hand and qualitatively distinct intersectional effects across these pathways. The overall project represents longitudinal, multi-informant research, using in-depth interviews to supplement survey data analyses of reports from students, parents, and teachers. This project targets 6th through 8th grade, a critical developmental juncture for students in terms of formation of identity and math motivation. The combination of these techniques will ultimately reveal how race- and gender-related experiences interrelate to shape African-American early adolescents' motivation and achievement in math. Broader impacts: The study will advance research on African American adolescents' motivational processes and sociocultural and contextual correlates of achievement in math contexts. Moreover, this study will identify the ways in which middle school-based experiences can affect personal and contextual factors in ways that are malleable to efforts aimed at promoting high math achievement and persistence for African American adolescents. Finally, the project's partnership with the local school district will increase the possibility for reciprocal relationships in which the research team can continue to learn from those school settings and help address challenges the schools encounter with empirically-based responses.