NRT-IGE: Indigenous Graduate Education in Science and Engineering - Southwest (IGESE-SW)

科学家和工程师的任务是应对本世纪一些最大、最复杂的国家和全球挑战，使该行业的就业岗位成为美国其他行业中增长最快的。但科学和工程领域存在多样性问题，这阻碍了充满活力、创造性和多样化的人才库。许多高等教育项目通过创建旨在缩小STEM领域多样性差距的项目来应对这一问题。虽然这些努力已经开始缩小一些代表不足的少数族裔人口的差距，但美洲印第安人和阿拉斯加原住民(AI/AN)仍然是STEM领域研究生学位中代表最少的学生群体。在亚利桑那大学(UA)的研究生教育创新(IGE)轨道上，这项国家科学基金会研究培训(NRT)奖将提高AI/AN工程学生的坚持性，并通过纳入本土化和更具对话性的互动方法来影响教师的看法和态度。该项目通过实施和调查几个与文化相关的项目组成部分来解决人工智能/人工智能科学和工程从业人员数量较少的问题，这些项目旨在影响人工智能/人工智能学生、教师导师和部落首领之间的关系。这一试点项目的创新之处在于系统地实施和评估了以教育科学和社会理论为基础的计划模块，这些理论假定可以显著提高人工智能/人工智能在STEM研究生课程中的持久性，特别是在工程学方面。该项目将改变本土工程专业学生和大学工程专业教师的研究生教育体验。该方法承认并利用了加州大学AI/AN学生存在的文化和社会资本，并以关键种族理论和家庭教育模式的研究为框架。UA有一个独特的机会与亚利桑那州内的22个联邦承认的部落合作。这些国家占据了亚利桑那州四分之一以上的土地，是超过25万美国印第安人的家园。这一基于美国大学的IGE实验床使用人种学方法，从AI/AN学生、教师导师和部落首领的角度，研究围绕参与度、归属感和其他对研究生学习的持久性至关重要的概念的行动和事件的意义。该模型包含四个主要部分，它们反映了一种全面的、基于经验的系统方法，以帮助AI/AN研究生成功地坚持下去：1)经济援助：与加州大学斯隆奖学金项目合作，为土著工程专业学生提供学费资助；2)社区驱动的研究：与当地部落合作伙伴建立关系；3)土著教师指导：作为教师培训计划的一部分，提供土著教师指导计划；以及4)提供学生融合和专业技能发展，以增加归属感和专业工程准备。这四个部分是个别关键的，集体强大的，并为来自所有部落和原住民社区的AI/AN学生提供了一个赋权、积极和持久的研究生学术生涯。试验床的成功要素将推广到全国其他地区。NSF研究培训(NRT)计划旨在鼓励开发和实施大胆的、新的、潜在的变革性STEM研究生教育培训模式。研究生教育创新轨道专门致力于试验、测试和评估新的、创新的和潜在的变革性研究生教育方法。该项目由研究生教育联盟和教授项目(AGEP)共同资助。AGEP资助科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)和/或STEM教育研究方面的研究和开发、实施和模式调查，以改变博士教育的博士论文阶段、博士后培训和/或教师晋升。

Scientists and Engineers are tasked with tackling some of the largest and most complex national and global challenges this century, making jobs in this sector the fastest growing of any other sector in the United States. But the fields of Science and Engineering have a diversity problem which inhibits a vibrant, creative, and diverse talent pool. Many higher education programs have responded to this issue by creating programs intended to narrow the diversity gap in STEM fields. While these efforts have begun to bridge the gap for some underrepresented minority populations, American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) remain the least represented group of students in graduate degrees in STEM fields. This National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) award in the Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) Track to the University of Arizona (UA) will improve persistence of AI/AN engineering students and impact faculty perceptions and attitudes through the inclusion of indigenous and more conversational methods of interaction. This project addresses the issue of low numbers of AI/AN science and engineering practitioners by implementing and investigating several culturally relevant program components designed to impact the relationships among AI/AN students, faculty mentors, and Tribal Nation leaders. The novelty of this pilot project is in the systematic implementation and assessment of program modules, grounded in education science and social theories that are hypothesized to dramatically improve persistence of AI/AN in STEM graduate programs, especially in engineering. This program will transform the graduate education experience for indigenous engineering students and university engineering faculty. The approach acknowledges and leverages the cultural and social capital present in the AI/AN students at UA, and is framed in research on critical race theories and family education models. UA has a unique opportunity to work with the 22 federally recognized tribes that lie within the state of Arizona. These nations occupy over one quarter of Arizona, and are the home to over 250,000 American Indians. This UA-based IGE testbed uses ethnographic methods to study the meaning of actions and events surrounding the concepts of engagement, belongingness, and other components critical to persistence in graduate school study from the perspective of AI/AN students, faculty mentors and Tribal Nation leaders. The model contains four major components that reflect a holistic, empirically-based, systems approach to the successful persistence of AI/AN graduate students: 1) Financial Assistance: partnering with the SLOAN scholarship program at UA for tuition funding for indigenous engineering students; 2) Community-driven research: relationship building with local tribal partners; 3) Indigenous Faculty Mentoring: Indigenous Mentoring Program as part of a faculty training initiative; and 4) providing student integration and professional skills development to increase a sense of belongingness and professional engineering preparation. These four components are individually critical, collectively powerful, and provide an empowering, positive, and persistent graduate academic career for AI/AN students from all tribes and Native communities. Successful elements of the testbed will be scaled to other regions nationwide. 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.This project is co-funded by the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program. AGEP funds research and the development, implementation, and investigation of models to transform the dissertation phase of doctoral education, postdoctoral training and/or faculty advancement of historically underrepresented minorities (URMs) in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and/or STEM education research.