Exploring Identity Formation of Minority Women in STEM through International research experiences

该奖项是作为NSF社会、行为和经济学博士后研究奖学金(SPRF)计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。这一博士后奖学金为一位新兴的学者兼科学家提供了一个机会，探索参与国际研究如何塑造科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域中代表性不足背景的女性的学术和个人发展。在过去的十年里，国际研究合作的比率以及国际学生和科学家在美国的代表性一直在稳步上升。科学现在比以往任何时候都更需要有能力在全球和本地的人员、技术和地点网络中导航。与此同时，有色人种妇女在科技、经济和经济领域中代表性不足的情况得到了很好的记录，并被认为是影响我们解决我们时代复杂问题的能力的一项挑战，是人才和专门知识的丧失。这项研究提供了对国际研究项目的见解，作为扩大STEM参与的创新战略。该项目的发现将有助于制定有效的战略，为美国学生进入新兴的全球化STEM劳动力做好准备。该项目题为《通过国际研究经验探索STEM中少数族裔妇女的认同形成》，探讨了跨国研究经验如何塑造科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域中代表性不足背景的妇女的认同形成。更具体地说，这项研究通过当代国际科学议程和网络的文化和物质实践，考察了不同的科学研究文化背景如何影响这些经历，以及跨种族、性别、阶级的身份形成的复杂性，以及作为一名科学家意味着什么。本研究采用多点研究方法，将参与者观察法、自由表现法、半结构式和结构式访谈与实验研究相结合。主要目标是(1)考察来自代表性不足背景的女性如何协商和竞争多种认识、存在和成为的方式(2)对本研究中的女性适应全球和本地科学网络的反应和策略进行分类，以及(3)探索跨国STEM研究中新出现的社会组织和合作模式。本研究旨在加深我们对跨国STEM教育和研究背景下种族和性别文化建构如何被重构、挑战和保存的理解。此外，这项研究的结果预计将有助于制定战略，不仅在STEM学科中增加性别、种族和民族多样性，而且使学生为研究和技术开发的快速全球化做好准备。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. This postdoctoral fellowship provides an emerging scholar-scientist with an opportunity to explore the ways participation in international research shape the academic and personal development of women from underrepresented backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Over the past decade, there has been a steady increase in the rate of international research collaboration and the representation of international students and scientists within the United States. Science, now more than ever, requires the ability to navigate global and local networks of people, technologies and places. Concurrently, the underrepresentation of women of color in STEM fields is well documented and has been framed as a challenge impacting our ability to solve the complex problems of our times and represents a loss of talent and expertise. This research provides insights into international research programs as an innovative strategy towards broadening participation in STEM. The findings of this project will contribute to the development of effective strategies to prepare U.S students to enter the emerging globalized STEM workforce. The project entitled, Exploring Identity Formation of Minority Women in STEM through International Research Experiences, explores the ways transnational research experiences shape the identity formation of women from underrepresented backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics(STEM) fields. More specifically, this research examines the ways in which varying cultural contexts of scientific inquiry may inform these experiences and the complexities of identity formation across the intersections of race, gender, class, and what it means to be a scientist through the cultural and material practices of contemporary international science agendas and networks. This project takes a multi-sited approach combining participant observation, free-listing, semi-structured and structured interviews and experimental research. The primary objectives are to (1) examine the ways women from underrepresented backgrounds negotiate and contest multiple ways of knowing, being and becoming (2) categorize the responses and strategies the women in this study adapt to navigate both global and local scientific networks, and (3) explore emerging models of social organization and collaboration in transnational STEM research. This research aims to advance our understandings of ways the cultural constructions of race and gender are reconfigured, challenged and preserved in the context of transnational STEM education and research. In addition, the findings of this study are expected to contribute to the development of strategies towards not only increasing gender, racial and ethnic diversity within the STEM disciplines, but also preparing students for the rapid globalization of research and technology development.