Inclusive Science Communication Symposium 2019: Building Knowledge and Capacity among Practitioners and Researchers to Foster Inclusive Public Engagement with STEM

作为加强非正式环境中学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划寻求促进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和发展的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括为扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验提供多种途径，推进对非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及加深参与者对更深层次学习的理解。该项目将通过2019年9月27日至29日在罗德岛州金斯敦罗德岛大学举行的2019年包容性科学传播(包容性科学通信)研讨会，推动以证据为基础的努力，扩大STEM的非正式参与。科学传播被定义为旨在使目标受众参与与STEM专题有关的对话或活动的任何信息交流，是一个迅速扩大的研究和实践领域，有可能显著增加公众在STEM领域的参与和归属感。尽管如此，它的从业者和学者几乎没有机会聚集在一起，讨论如何使他们的工作既包容又公平，共同承认身份、文化差异和认识论是扩大参与的一部分。2019年研讨会将通过小组讨论、研讨会和海报，重点关注代表包容性科学传播的关键和困难方面的三个主题：(1)新的语言、实践、知识和研究；(2)通过科学传播改变系统和结构；以及(3)社会责任和伦理。在这些主题范围内，将组织会议，以解决2018年包容性科学通信研讨会与会者确定的主要缺席障碍：技能、吸取的经验教训和知识差距，特别是在促进跨越差异的困难对话(关键对话)方面。研讨会还将强调需要整合研究和实践，以推动包容性、公平性和跨部门的科学传播方法。迫切需要质疑关于科学传播者和学者如何采取努力扩大参与的假设和证据，但关于包容性和公平做法的投入和产出的数据不足。关于特权、权力或边缘化等可能令人不快的话题的批判性对话是包容性实践和教学的基本工具。2018年包容性科学通信研讨会的发现表明，许多教育工作者和实践者缺乏语言、技能或信心来发起这种类型的对话。该项目支持2019年包容性科学通信研讨会的知识建设部分，以2018年研讨会期间收集的初步数据为基础，并回应对科学传播活动进行更有力评估的需要，为未来的科学传播培训、实践和学术提供信息。应用计划行为理论，该项目将使用研讨会前后的调查来调查2019年研讨会活动如何影响与会者关于批判性对话的知识、态度、主观规范和效能(计划行为理论的变量)。专题讨论会上的重点小组将被用来确定与包容性有关的优先研究领域，特别是可以促进包容性科学传播实践和有益成果的批判性对话。该项目还将评估专题讨论会的影响，涉及1)与会者对专题讨论会组成部分对促进包容性科学传播的效用的意见，以及2)与会者的经验和反应方向如何影响他们处理困难的科学交流对话的方法。来自调查和重点小组的定性数据将通过不断的比较进行主题编码。该项目将对包容性科学传播实践产生战略影响，从而对非正式学习和公众参与STEM专题具有战略影响。提高科学传播者和培训者对批判性对话的认识和有效实施，应加强传统上代表性不足和边缘化群体的伦理参与，并应促进不同类型的公众参与关于科学问题的社会辩论。这项研究的成果将使非正式科学学习和科学交流这两个相互补充但往往孤立的领域受益和联系在一起。最后一份报告将总结研究结果，并提出下一步的具体步骤，以推进包容性科学传播实践和研究，特别是在促进批判性对话方面。这份报告将发布在Includsivescicomm.org上，并通过在非正式科学教育、科学传播和公共活动中工作的全国合作伙伴网络分发。该奖项反映了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。

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. This project will advance evidence-based efforts to broaden informal STEM engagement via the 2019 Inclusive Science Communication (Inclusive SciComm) Symposium, to be held September 27-29, 2019, at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island. Science communication, defined as any information exchange designed to engage targeted audiences in conversations or activities related to STEM topics, is a rapidly expanding area of research and practice with the potential to significantly increase public participation and sense of belonging in STEM fields. That said, there are few opportunities for its practitioners and scholars to convene around how to make their work both inclusive and equitable, which collectively acknowledge identity, cultural differences, and epistemologies as part of broadening participation. The 2019 symposium will address this gap through panels, workshops, and posters focused on three themes that represent critical and difficult aspects of inclusive science communication: (1) New Languages, Practices, Knowledge, and Research; (2) Changing Systems and Structures through Science Communication; and (3) Social Responsibility and Ethics. Within these themes, sessions will be organized to address major barriers of absence identified by participants in the 2018 Inclusive SciComm Symposium: skills, lessons learned, and knowledge gaps, especially with regard to facilitating difficult conversations across difference (critical dialogue). The symposium also will emphasize the need to integrate research and practice to advance inclusive, equitable, and intersectional approaches to science communication.There is an urgent need to question assumptions and examine evidence regarding how science communicators and scholars approach efforts to broaden participation, but insufficient data exist on the inputs and outputs of inclusive and equitable practice. Critical dialogue about potentially uncomfortable topics such as privilege, power, or marginalization is an essential tool for inclusive practice and pedagogy. Finding from the 2018 Inclusive SciComm Symposium indicated that many educators and practitioners lack the language, skills, or confidence to initiate this type of dialogue. This project supports the knowledge-building component of the 2019 Inclusive SciComm Symposium to inform future science communication training, practice, and scholarship, by building on preliminary data collected during the 2018 symposium and responding to the need for more robust evaluation of science communication activities. Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior, the project will employ pre/post symposium surveys to investigate how 2019 symposium activities affected knowledge, attitudes, subjective norms, and efficacy (the variables of the Theory of Planned Behavior) of attendees with regard to critical dialogue. Focus groups at the symposium will be used to identify priority research areas related to inclusion, generally, and critical dialogue, specifically, that could advance inclusive science communication practice and beneficial outcomes. The project also will evaluate symposium impacts with regard to 1) attendees' opinions on utility of symposium components for advancing inclusive science communication and 2) how attendees' experience and response orientations inform their approaches to difficult science communication conversations. Qualitative data from the surveys and focus groups will be thematically coded using constant comparison.This project will have strategic impact for inclusive science communication practice and, therefore, for informal learning and public engagement with STEM topics. Increasing awareness and effective implementation of critical dialogue by science communicators and trainers should enhance both for ethical engagement of traditionally under-represented and marginalized groups and should foster diverse types of public participation in societal debates about scientific issues. The outcomes of this research will benefit and link the complementary, but often siloed, fields of informal science learning and science communication. A final report will summarize research findings and offer specific next steps to advance inclusive science communication practice and research, especially with regard to fostering critical dialogue. The report will be posted on inclusivescicomm.org and distributed via a national network of partners working in informal science education, science communication, and public engagement.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.