Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Discourse Analysis of Training Programs

该奖项支持的人类学研究将研究那些试图扩大代表性不足群体参与的项目。与专注于大规模社会规划的研究不同，这个项目将着眼于集中精力培训个人的较小、成本较低的项目的有效性。最重要的研究问题是，这种尊重个人选择和代理的更实际的方法是否与更大规模的方法一样有效。这是一个重要的问题，因为所有社会有时都必须要求其公民对不断变化的情况作出反应。政策制定者需要了解个人行为和更大的社会过程之间的关系，以便采取必要的应对措施。这项研究将在美国进行，使用候选人培训计划作为研究地点。研究人员将评估这些项目如何理解、制定战略并促进目标群体的领导力。研究人员将结合使用人种学方法收集数据，包括：培训课程的参与者观察；针对不同群体的项目收集的话语的收集和比较分析；培训材料的文本分析；对培训者和受训者的半结构化访谈；以及档案研究。这项研究的发现将有助于更好地科学理解个体代理人如何可能或可能不会产生社会变革。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The anthropological research supported by this award will study programs that are trying to broaden the participation of underrepresented groups. Unlike studies that focus on large-scale social programming, this project will look at the effectiveness of smaller, less costly undertakings that concentrate their efforts on training individuals. The overarching research question is whether this more practical approach, which respects individual choice-making and agency, is as effective as larger scale approaches. This is an important question because all societies must sometimes ask their citizens to respond to changing circumstances. Policy makers need to understand the relationship between individual acts and larger social processes in order to bring about the necessary responses. The research will be undertaken in the United States, using candidate training programs as research sites. The researcher will assess how these programs understand, strategize about, and promote leadership by targeted groups. The researcher will collect data using a combination of ethnographic methods including: participant observation at training sessions; the collection and comparative analysis of discourse collected at programs targeted at different groups; text analysis of training materials; semi-structured interviews with trainers and trainees; and archival research. Findings from the research will contribute to better scientific understanding of how individual agents may or may not produce social transformation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.