Broadening Participation Research: Investigating Faculty Influences on STEM Degree Production at HBCUs

Prairie View A&amp；M大学提议调查历史悠久的黑人学院和大学(HBCU)教员在培养代表不足的STEM学位本科生方面所扮演的角色。调查人员将进行一项混合方法研究项目，涉及HBCU，这些大学培养出大量的非裔美国STEM毕业生，以确定教师对这一成功的贡献。该项目建立在之前针对HBCU STEM项目中学习成绩优异的非裔美国学生的研究基础上，这些研究表明，有必要更深入地研究教师对学生成功的影响。认识到HBCU文化和气候对学生成功的影响，研究人员将能够分离出教职员工微妙的角色。该项目的总体目标是更好地了解影响非裔美国学生在STEM留住和成功的因素，并就教师如何为这些学生构建成功的大学经历提出见解。拟议的研究项目将以社会资本、韧性和文化资本理论为指导。它将调查两个研究问题：HBCU的教职员工如何支持少数族裔学生在STEM中坚持和保留；在为代表不足的少数族裔学生准备研究生教育和STEM职业生涯方面，什么战略最有效？研究将分两个阶段进行。第二阶段将使用定性调查结果的数据来开发一种量化工具，该工具将捕捉教职员工阐述的影响非裔美国学生在STEM留住和成功的因素。数据将使用开放、轴向和选择性编码方法进行分析，以揭示突出的紧急类别和主题，并将使用不断比较的方法来获得对研究结果的更多见解。

Prairie View A&M University proposes to investigate the role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) faculty in the production of underrepresented undergraduates with STEM degrees. The investigators will conduct a mixed methods research project involving HBCUs that produce significant numbers of African American STEM graduates to determine faculty contributions to that success. The project builds on previous research focused on academically gifted African American students enrolled in HBCU STEM programs that suggested the need for a more in-depth study of the faculty's influences on student success. Recognizing the confluence of HBCU culture and climate on student success, the researchers will be able to isolate the nuanced role of the faculty. The overarching goal of the project is to better understand factors that influence the retention and success of African American students in STEM and to produce insights about how faculty can structure successful collegiate experiences for these students.The proposed research project will be guided by social capital, resilience, and cultural capital theories. It will investigate two research questions: How do HBCU faculty support minority student persistence and retention in STEM; and what strategies are most effective in preparing underrepresented minority students for graduate education and STEM careers? The research will be conducted in two phases. The first phase will include the collection and analysis of qualitative data from interviews, focus groups, and chat-based discussions. The second phase will use data from the qualitative findings to develop a quantitative instrument that will capture the factors articulated by faculty that impact the retention and success of African American students in STEM. Data will be analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding methods to uncover salient emergent categories and themes, and the constant comparative method will be used to gain additional insights on the research findings. The research will will produce a model for STEM faculty development and training and a survey instrument for measuring STEM faculty engagement towards success.