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

尽管人们广泛努力提高参与度，但女性在 STEM 学科中的代表性不足，随着技术进步，行业对 STEM 员工的需求迅速增长，从而造成了经济障碍。更明显的是 STEM 领域担任领导职务的女性短缺。许多 STEM 学科的女性在遇到性别偏见、歧视和不平等时，仍然无法实现崇高的职业目标，她们表示，在不影响职业发展的情况下应对这些不利情况是一项挑战。美国国家科学基金会研究生教育创新 (IGE) 项目中的研究实习生 (NRT) 奖项授予布法罗大学和加州理工州立大学，该奖项将支持 NAVIGATE 项目的发展，该项目旨在增加坚持所选学科并发挥领导作用的女性 STEM 毕业生的数量。 NAVIGATE 项目是一项创新培训计划，依靠案例研究教学方法来提高 STEM 女性的技能，以有效应对劳动力中的偏见、不平等或歧视情况。职业道路上的持久性将会增强，全国范围内担任领导职务的女性人数将会增加。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。 NAVIGATE 项目采用了商业、法律和医学领域经过验证的教学法——案例研究教学法，该方法已被证明可以促进学习的内化以及分析、解决问题和决策技能的发展，从而使女性 STEM 研究生能够认识和对抗性别偏见、不平等和歧视。该计划以当前的公平、多样性和包容性理论以及有关女性 STEM 专业人员在劳动力中遇到的问题的文献为基础。该项目将首次测试案例研究方法在培养学生解决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来收集定性和定量数据，以评估研究生培养计划的有效性。该团队将创建一系列案例研究，这些案例研究将通过国家科学案例研究教学中心或华盛顿大学主办的 NSF 资助项目 Lead it Yourself 广泛传播。该项目解决了国家优先事项，即采用以前从未尝试过和测试过的方法来发展 STEM 劳动力并使其多样化。 NSF 研究培训 (NRT) 计划旨在鼓励为 STEM 研究生教育培训开发和实施大胆、新颖、具有潜在变革性的模型。研究生教育创新轨道专门致力于试点、测试和评估新颖、创新且具有潜在变革性的研究生教育方法。

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.