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标准化考试中的表现较差，尽管具备必要的能力，但他们选择退出高级课程，尽管有相关准备，但他们在大学里选择了非STEM领域的专业。本项目将采用初步定量分析和补充定性分析相结合的方法，研究非裔美国中学生在数学方面的耻辱经历、性别和种族认同的发展、与家庭和学校的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构建之间的相互关系。智力优势：为扩大非裔美国学生参与STEM的努力提供信息，需要更多使用组内设计并同时关注种族和性别的研究。定量分析将研究这个复杂的相互关系系统和这些动态的发展，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中定性不同的交叉效应。整个项目是纵向的、多信息来源的研究，使用深度访谈来补充对学生、家长和教师报告的调查数据分析。本项目针对六至八年级学生，这是学生身份认同和数学动机形成的关键发展阶段。这些技术的结合将最终揭示种族和性别相关的经历如何相互关联，塑造非裔美国早期青少年的数学动机和成就。更广泛的影响：该研究将推进非裔美国青少年的动机过程和数学成就的社会文化和背景相关研究。此外，本研究将确定以中学为基础的经历如何影响个人和环境因素，这些因素对旨在促进非裔美国青少年的高数学成绩和坚持不懈的努力具有可塑性。最后，该项目与当地学区的合作将增加互惠关系的可能性，在这种关系中，研究团队可以继续从这些学校的环境中学习，并通过基于经验的回应来帮助解决学校遇到的挑战。

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.