CAREER: Analyzing the Nexus between Advantaged Social Positioning and Science Identity Development Among English Language Learners

超过540万的美国公立学校学生被认定为英语学习者(ELL)，其中440万人说西班牙语。尽管ELL人口不断增加，对STEM工作的需求也在不断增长，但研究发现，ELL在科学成就方面的差距越来越大，他们在STEM劳动力中的代表性严重不足。在科技、经济和经济领域解决ELL与其同行之间日益扩大的差距仍然是国家的优先事项。这个职业项目考察了英语学习学生的语言认同和科学认同发展之间的实证关系。该项目解决了对实证研究的迫切需求，这些研究结合了第二语言教育、语言学和科学教育的理论观点，以了解英语专业学生的科学认同发展。基于社会定位理论，该研究认为，Ells在教育经历中的弱势地位(由于他们的语言水平有限)破坏了他们不断发展的教育身份。这项拟议的研究是在马萨诸塞州南部一所大学的STEM暑期校外项目(OST)中进行的。该项目包括ELL中学生，他们来自马萨诸塞州南部门户城市的种族/种族、语言多样化和低收入城市教育背景。NSF的职业计划是一项全基金会范围的活动，旨在向初级教师提供国家科学基金会最负盛名的奖项，以支持他们通过杰出的研究、出色的教育以及在其组织使命范围内将教育和研究结合起来发挥教师-学者的作用。采用纵向混合方法和实验研究设计，该项目的中心假设是，支持提高Ells的语言认同感的干预措施，如将他们定位为认知优势者，将与Ells的学习和对科学的认同，即他们的科学认同，产生积极的互动。这项研究将使人们了解基于语言的认知在Ells的语言身份中所起的作用，更具体地说，将衡量优势地位对Ells科学身份发展的影响。此外，该项目将制定新的和创新的方法，教师可以用来认可和促进英语专业学生有能力的科学表现和语言认同发展。研究结果将帮助教育工作者、政策制定者和研究人员设计有效的教学计划，以支持ELL学生的长期教育成就和身份发展。该项目由学习研究部的发现研究PreK-12计划(DRK-12)资助，该计划旨在通过研究和开发科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)教育创新和方法，显著提高PreK-12学生和教师的STEM学习和教学。

Over 5.4 million of the U.S. public school students are identified as English language learners (ELLs), with 4.4 million being Spanish-speaking. Despite the increasing ELL population and growing demands for STEM jobs, research has noted mounting disparities in ELLs' science achievement and their substantial underrepresentation in the STEM workforce. Addressing the growing disparities between ELLs and their counterparts in STEM fields remains a national priority. This CAREER project examines the empirical nexus between ELL students' language identity and science identity development. The project addresses the pressing need for empirical studies that combine theoretical perspectives from second language education, linguistics, and science education to understand science identity development among ELLs. Based on social positioning theory, the research argues that ELLs' disadvantaged positioning in their educational experiences (due to their limited language proficiencies) undermines their developing educational identities. The proposed research takes place at a STEM Summer Out-of-School (OST) Program in a university setting in Southern Massachusetts. The project includes ELL middle school students, who come from ethnically/racially, linguistically diverse and a low-income urban educational context from Gateway cities in Southern Massachusetts. NSF's CAREER Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. Using longitudinal mixed-methods and experimental research design, the project's central hypothesis is that interventions that support boosting ELLs' language identities, such as positioning them as cognitively advantaged, will positively interact with ELLs' learning and identifying with science, namely their science identities. The research will generate understandings about the role language-based perceptions have in ELLs' language identities, and more specifically, will measure the impact of advantaged positioning on ELLs' science identity development over time. Further, the project will formulate new and innovative methods teachers can use to recognize and promote competent science performance and language identity development among ELLs. Results will help educators, policy-makers, and researchers design effective instructional programs that support long-term educational achievement and identity development among ELLs. This project is funded by the Division of Research on Learning's Discovery Research PreK-12 program (DRK-12), which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by PreK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of STEM education innovations and approaches.