Collaborative Research: Sociopolitical Development and STEM Motivation in African American Youth

合作研究：非裔美国青年的社会政治发展和 STEM 动机

• 批准号: 1728959
• 负责人: Lucretia Ward
• 金额: $ 61.6万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-01 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1728959&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Sociopolitical; Development; STEM

Racial disparities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have persisted for decades. This project assesses African American students' awareness of racial inequities and how such awareness is related to students' STEM motivation through three broad aims: (1) to investigate changes in students' science and math motivation as they transition to high school; (2) to measure changes in youth's knowledge of racial inequities across the high school transition and whether such knowledge is related to changes in STEM course-taking; and (3) to examine the influences of African American parents' race-related experiences and beliefs on their socialization of their children and on their children's STEM motivation. In addition to contributing to scientific theory regarding racial inequalities, motivation, and achievement outcomes, the study has the potential to inform intervention efforts that would target adolescents' and parents' knowledge of racial inequities and ways that families might foster youth's success in STEM domains. Immediate impacts include training of undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented backgrounds and creation of an intergroup dialogue program for students and parents aimed at increasing their race-related academic consciousness.Participants are 380 African American youth and their parents and teachers who have already participated annually in this STEM-focused research project during the youth's middle school years. In this new stage of the project, students, parents, and teachers will complete surveys when youth are in Grades 9 and 10. Key hypotheses to be evaluated are (1) science and math motivation will be strongest among youth who already in middle school held an awareness of inequities, and whose motivational beliefs emphasize agency and efficacy; (2) students' awareness of racial achievement gaps will increase over time, and system-blame attributions (e.g., attributing achievement gaps to teacher bias) will lead to greater STEM persistence and success; (3) parents' knowledge of racial inequality will be positively associated with racial pride socialization and preparation of their children for discrimination; and (4) parents' racial socialization, homework monitoring, school involvement, and encouragement of youth's extracurricular STEM activities will be positively associated with youth's STEM success. We will test these hypotheses using latent growth curve modeling, assessing change over time and ways in which earlier measures (e.g., students' and parents' awareness of achievement gaps when youth were in middle school) predict change in parents' socializing behaviors and students' STEM motivation and success. These results will inform our intergroup dialogue program, which will be designed with the collaboration of consultants at the University of Michigan and California State University.

科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的种族差异已经持续了几十年。本项目通过三个主要目标来评估非裔美国学生对种族不平等的认识，以及这种认识如何与学生的STEM动机相关：(1)调查学生在向高中过渡时科学和数学动机的变化；(2)衡量青少年在高中过渡时期对种族不平等的认识的变化，以及这种认识是否与STEM课程的变化有关；(3)研究非裔美国父母的种族相关经历和信仰对他们孩子的社会化和孩子的STEM动机的影响。除了为有关种族不平等、动机和成就结果的科学理论做出贡献外，该研究还有可能为针对青少年和父母对种族不平等的认识以及家庭可能培养青少年在STEM领域取得成功的方式的干预工作提供信息。直接影响包括培训来自弱势群体背景的本科生和研究生，并为学生和家长创建一个群体间对话项目，旨在提高他们与种族有关的学术意识。参与者是380名非裔美国青年及其父母和老师，他们在青少年的中学时期每年都参加过这个以stem为重点的研究项目。在这个项目的新阶段，学生、家长和老师将在孩子们上九年级和十年级时完成调查。本研究的主要假设为：(1)具有不公平意识的初中生的科学和数学动机最强，其动机信仰强调能动性和有效性；(2)学生对种族成绩差距的意识将随着时间的推移而增强，系统责任归因（例如，将成绩差距归因于教师偏见）将导致更大的STEM持久性和成功；(3)父母对种族不平等的认知与种族骄傲社会化和子女对歧视的准备呈正相关；(4)父母的种族社会化、家庭作业监督、学校参与和鼓励青少年的课外STEM活动与青少年的STEM成功呈正相关。我们将使用潜在增长曲线模型来检验这些假设，评估随时间的变化，以及早期测量（例如，学生和家长在青少年在中学时对成就差距的认识）预测父母社交行为和学生STEM动机和成功的变化的方式。这些结果将为我们的小组间对话项目提供信息，该项目将由密歇根大学和加州州立大学的顾问合作设计。