Advancing Refugee Youth's STEM and Social Capital Through Family-Focused Learning

该项目在亚利桑那州立大学的多所学校和中心与布隆迪-美国人道与机会协会（BAAHO）建立了伙伴关系，以加强难民家庭在STEM学术和职业道路上的代表性。难民青年有时因其新的语言技能而被教育工作者忽视，但与其他青年一样，他们能够做出重要的STEM贡献。该项目通过以家庭为中心的模式，将布隆迪难民家庭与大学教师和本科生联系起来，承认并利用布隆迪难民成年人的STEM知识和观点。有12-17岁孩子的家庭将参加：由学生和教师促进的“客厅外展活动”，与STEM专业人员会面和互动的机会，到多个大学校园实地考察，了解大学生活和各种STEM途径，以及与其他家庭选择的非正式STEM学习体验。此外，年龄较大的儿童将参与创新技术体验，通过学员和导师之间共享的电子STEM Aspiration期刊，促进STEM专业人员和青年之间的指导关系。该项目的核心是建立伙伴关系和提供相互学习的机会，使父母能够分享他们的专门知识，同时也更多地了解如何成为子女的有效倡导者;青年能够向本科生和执业专业导师学习，而本科生也向布隆迪青年学习;布隆迪领导人向教师和本科生讲授布隆迪的历史和文化，而教师和本科生则分享他们在STEM职业道路上的经验。该项目通过围绕社会认知职业理论进行的研究，增进了对难民家庭STEM经历和愿望的了解。研究人员检查了每个项目活动对青年参与者的自我效能，STEM身份，结果期望和STEM兴趣的综合和具体影响，以支持他们的STEM目标。此外，研究人员的目标是了解布隆迪难民家庭中的大学社会资本和STEM资本如何直接影响儿童的STEM愿望并发挥调节作用。在这项试点研究中，研究人员采取了混合方法的研究方法，定性方法使他们能够了解该计划的不同方面如何影响青年参与者。研究人员与布隆迪领导人合作，调整调查工具的文化有效性，并管理调查，以获得与方案活动影响有关的更多数据。该项目的贡献将包括：一个可供其他大学和/或其他难民社区使用的以家庭为重点的外联模式，一种通过共享电子日志促进远程辅导的方法，关于该模式不同方面如何影响难民参与者的研究结果，以及经调整后适用于难民人口的研究工具。该项目将为今后可能扩大对其他难民人口（和其他社区）的援助奠定基础，并将参考该项目的调查结果，并得到国际援救委员会的进一步支持。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划资助，该计划支持建立对实践，计划元素，背景和过程的理解的项目，有助于增加学生对科学，技术，工程，信息和通信技术（ICT）该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project creates partnerships among multiple schools and centers at Arizona State University with the Burundi-America Association for Humanity and Opportunities (BAAHO) to bolster representation of refugee families in STEM academic and career pathways. Refugee youth are sometimes overlooked by educators because of their emerging language skills, but like other youth they are capable of making important STEM contributions. This project recognizes and leverages the STEM knowledge and perspectives of Burundian refugee adults through a family-focused model that connects Burundian refugee families with university faculty and undergraduate students. Families with children ages 12-17 will participate in: “living room outreach events” facilitated by students and faculty, opportunities to meet and interact with STEM professionals, field trips to multiple university campuses to learn about college life and various STEM pathways, and informal STEM learning experiences of choice with other families. Additionally, older children will participate in an innovative technology experience that facilitates mentoring relationships between STEM professionals and the youth through an electronic-based STEM Aspiration journal shared between the mentee and mentor. At the core of the project are partnerships and opportunities for reciprocal learning, where parents are able to share their expertise while also learning more about how to be effective advocates for their children; youth are able to learn from undergraduate and practicing professional mentors, while undergraduates also learn from Burundian youth; and Burundian leaders teach faculty and undergraduates about Burundian history and culture while faculty and undergraduates share their experiences with navigating STEM career pathways. The project advances knowledge of refugee families’ STEM experiences and aspirations through research framed around social cognitive career theory. The investigators examine the composite and specific effects of each of the project activities on the youth participants’ self-efficacy, STEM identity, outcome expectations, and STEM interests, in support of their STEM goals. Additionally, the researchers aim to understand how college social capital and STEM capital among Burundian refugee families both directly impacts and acts as a moderator on children's STEM aspirations. In this pilot study, the investigators take a mixed-methods research approach, where qualitative methods allow them to understand how different aspects of the program impact the youth participants. In collaboration with Burundian leaders, the researchers adapt survey instruments for cultural validity, and administer the surveys for additional data related to the impact of the program activities. Contributions from this project will include: a family-focused outreach model that can be used by other universities and/or with other refugee communities, an approach to facilitating remote mentoring through shared electronic journaling, research findings related to how different aspects of the model impact refugee participants, and research instruments that have been adapted for use with refugee populations. The project will provide a foundation for possible future scale-up with other refugee populations (and in other communities), informed by the findings from this project and further supported by the International Rescue Committee. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts, and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.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.