Collaborative Research: NRT-IGE: The NAVIGATE Project: A Case-Study Approach to Overcoming Barriers to Advancement for Women in STEM

尽管人们普遍努力提高女性在STEM学科中的参与度，但女性在STEM学科中的代表性不足，这造成了经济障碍，因为随着技术的进步，行业对STEM员工的需求迅速增长。更明显的是，在STEM领域担任领导角色的女性不足。许多STEM学科的女性在遇到性别偏见、歧视和不平等时，继续放弃崇高的职业目标，她们报告说，她们发现在不偏离职业轨道的情况下应对这些不利情况是一项挑战。布法罗大学和加州州立理工大学研究生教育创新（IGE）项目的国家科学基金会研究培训（NRT）奖将支持导航项目的发展，该项目旨在增加坚持所选学科的STEM女性毕业生的数量，并发挥领导作用。“导航项目”是一项创新培训计划，它依靠案例研究教学方法来提高STEM女性有效应对劳动力中偏见、不平等或歧视事件的技能。在职业道路上的坚持将会增加，在全国担任领导职务的妇女人数将会增加。一个由科学家和工程师、学术和行业领袖、案例研究教学专家以及评估和教育研究人员组成的团队将设计和实施该计划。导航项目采用商业、法律和医学领域行之有效的教学法，即案例研究教学法，该教学法已被证明可以促进学习的内化和分析、解决问题和决策技能的发展，使STEM女性研究生能够认识和打击性别偏见、不平等和歧视。该计划以当前的公平，多样性和包容性理论为依据，并通过有关女性STEM专业人员在劳动力中遇到的问题的文献。这个项目将首次测试案例研究法在培养学生处理这些问题的技能方面的有效性。项目团队将采用混合方法研究设计，收集定性和定量数据，以评估研究生培训计划的有效性。该团队将创建一个案例研究集，通过国家科学案例研究教学中心或由华盛顿大学主办的国家科学基金会资助的Lead it Yourself项目广泛传播。该项目解决了国家的一个优先事项，即通过以前没有尝试和测试过的方法来增加和多样化STEM劳动力。美国国家科学基金会研究实习生（NRT）计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、新的、具有潜在变革性的STEM研究生教育培训模式。研究生教育创新轨道专门用于试点，测试和评估新颖，创新和潜在的变革性研究生教育方法。

Women are underrepresented in STEM disciplines despite widespread efforts to increase participation, creating an economic barrier as industry demand for STEM employees grows rapidly with advancing technology. Even more apparent is the shortage of women in leadership roles in STEM fields. Many women in STEM disciplines continue to be dissuaded from lofty career goals when they encounter gender bias, discrimination and inequity, reporting that they find it challenging to navigate these adverse situations without derailing their careers. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award in the Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Track to the University at Buffalo and California Polytechnic State University will support the development of the NAVIGATE Project, which aims to increase the number of women STEM graduates who persist in their chosen disciplines, and achieve leadership roles. The NAVIGATE Project is an innovative training program that relies on Case Study Teaching Methods to increase the skills of STEM women to navigate effectively past instances of bias, inequity or discrimination in the workforce. Persistence within career paths will be increased, and the numbers of women in leadership roles nationally will be enhanced. A team comprising scientists and engineers, academic and industry leaders, case studies teaching experts, and evaluation and educational researchers will design and implement the program. The NAVIGATE program employs a proven pedagogy from business, law, and medicine, the Case Study Teaching Method, which has been shown to promote internalization of learning and the development of analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills, to empower women STEM graduate students to recognize and combat gender bias, inequity and discrimination. The program is informed by current theories of equity, diversity and inclusion, and by literature on the issues women STEM professionals encounter in the workforce. This project will test, for the first time, the effectiveness of the Case Study Method for developing students' skills to navigate these issues. The project team will use a mixed methods research design to collect qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate the effectiveness of the graduate training program. The team will create a collection of case studies that will be widely disseminated through the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science or through Lead it Yourself, an NSF-funded project hosted by the University of Washington. The project addresses a national priority to grow and diversify the STEM workforce with methods that have not previously been tried and tested. The NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) Program is designed to encourage the development and implementation of bold, new, potentially transformative models for STEM graduate education training. The Innovations in Graduate Education Track is dedicated solely to piloting, testing, and evaluating novel, innovative, and potentially transformative approaches to graduate education.