Analyzing a Multigenerational Mentorship Environment Designed to Advance STEM Persistence of Undergraduate Women of Color

该项目旨在通过增加有色人种女性在STEM中的参与来服务于国家利益。它将通过研究旨在支持有色人种本科女性在STEM领域持续发展的多代导师环境的影响来实现这一目标。这种环境的重点是支持学生的幸福和繁荣。有色人种女性包括黑人/非裔美国人、拉丁裔美国人、亚裔美国人和土著女性。这一群体在物理科学、技术、工程和数学的各级教育中仍然明显不足。这种持续的代表性不足并不反映出在STEM领域取得优异成绩的学术能力有限，而是似乎是由降低STEM归属感的经历所驱动的。需要更多的研究来了解在不受欢迎的STEM环境中坚持的心理代价，并实施有效的干预措施。该项目将研究通过创建空间（即反空间）来改变STEM参与的努力，这些空间整体上支持学生交叉身份（包括STEM身份）的复杂相互作用。这样的平衡空间有可能将赤字叙事转变为资产叙事，从而促进学生的坚持和成就。这个项目的目标是：1)评估平衡空间对学生持久性的有效性；2)将这种抗衡空间的应用扩展到少数族裔服务机构，并比较其在少数族裔服务机构和以白人为主的机构中招收的有色人种女性中的有效性；3)理解有意和明确地关注社会心理健康是如何影响有色人种女性对STEM的坚持的；4)研究参与竞争空间对有色人种女性的长期影响，包括对学位完成和进入STEM劳动力的影响。为了实现这些目标，项目团队将进行包括过程和结果度量的多方法纵向研究和评估研究。这种交叉研究有潜力以三种重要的方式推进知识和理论。首先，这些研究将增加对抗衡空间的理解，以及在STEM中支持有色人种女性的抗衡空间的特征。其次，它将确定有色人种妇女在不同类型的机构和城乡环境中经历的异同。第三，纵向结果将表明，持续参与平衡空间可能有助于STEM劳动力的持久性和保留率。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。这是一个参与式学生学习项目，通过该项目，该项目支持有前途的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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 aims to serve the national interest by increasing the participation of women of color in STEM. It will do so by examining the impact of a multigenerational mentorship environment designed to support persistence of undergraduate women of color in STEM. This environment focuses on supporting student well-being and thriving. Women of color include women who identify as Black/African American, Latina, Asian American, and Indigenous. This group remains significantly underrepresented at all levels of education in the physical sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This continued underrepresentation does not reflect limited academic capacity to excel in STEM, but instead appears to be driven by experiences that lower the sense of belonging in STEM. More research is needed both to understand the psychological toll of persisting in an unwelcoming STEM environment, and to implement effective interventions. This project will examine efforts to transform STEM participation through creation of spaces (i.e. counterspaces) that holistically support the complex interplay of students’ intersecting identities, including their STEM identities. Such counterspaces have the potential to shift deficit narratives to asset narratives and thus promote students’ persistence and achievement. The goals of this project are to: 1) evaluate the effectiveness of a counterspace on student persistence; 2) extend the application of this counterspace to a minority-serving institution and compare its effectiveness among women of color enrolled at an minority-serving institution and a predominantly white institution; 3) understand the ways in which an intentional and explicit focus on psychosocial wellbeing affects STEM persistence among women of color; and 4) examine the long-term impact of engagement in the counterspace on women of color, including on degree completion and entry into the STEM workforce. To achieve these goals, the project team will conduct a multi-methodological longitudinal research and evaluation study that includes both process and outcome metrics. This intersectional examination has the potential to advance knowledge and theory in three significant ways. First, these studies will add to the understanding of counterspaces, and the features of counterspaces that are supportive of women of color in STEM. Second, it will identify the similarities and differences in the experiences of women of color in different types of institutions and in both urban rural settings. Third, the longitudinal results will suggest ways in which continuous engagement in a counterspace may facilitate persistence and retention in the STEM workforce. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. This is an Engaged Student Learning project, through which the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.