NSF INCLUDES Planning Grant: Broadening Participation of Rural K-12 Girls in Mathematics Intensive STEM Fields

该NSF INCLUDES计划拨款由NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science（NSF INCLUDES）资助，这是一项全面的国家计划，旨在通过关注多样性，包容性和扩大STEM的参与程度来加强美国在发现和创新方面的领导地位。这项规划补助金的目标是将主要利益相关者聚集在研究实践伙伴关系（RPP）中，以扩大农村K-12女孩在数学密集型STEM领域的参与。在过去的20年里，有大量的研究确定了年轻女性从事STEM职业的障碍和潜在途径，但仅适用于一般人群或特定亚群。该项目的重点是在STEM教育研究中未被注意和代表性不足的人群-来自美国农村地区的年轻女性。规划拨款将奠定基础，通过结合缅因州数学和科学联盟（MMSA）和全国女孩合作项目（NGCP）的力量，与农村教育工作者，全国各地的年轻女性，100金10合作伙伴和关键的STEM组织，如Roux研究所，从头开始建立大规模的伙伴关系和网络。该研究的RPP方法将扩大农村年轻妇女的声音和经验，他们生活的社区，他们可以工作的STEM业务部门，以及他们合作的教育工作者，以建立持久的伙伴关系，前进的道路，重点研究问题，以及解决这一总体议程的战略计划。这项规划拨款将为在全国范围内推进知识和包容性实践奠定坚实的基础，建立一个更具包容性的环境，并帮助缩小农村年轻女性在数学密集的STEM领域不断扩大的性别差距。此外，使用RPP与农村社区一起推进这项研究提供了一个独特的模式，可以扩展和复制，以解决与农村社区成员合作的其他研究问题。利用期望价值理论作为框架，PI将首先集中精力探索整个K-12连续体的农村地区年轻女性的动机信念。通过组建一支由研究人员、从业人员和年轻女性组成的多元化、充满激情的团队，研究团队将超越对问题结构的理解，找到解决问题的方法。区域方案计划活动将形成一个共同的改革愿景，以扩大农村青年妇女对数学密集型职业道路的参与，具体做法是：1）解开并形成对这一问题的共同理解，包括确定构成阻碍青年妇女选择数学密集型STEM领域的具体实践问题; 2）设计基于证据的解决方案，以告知共同的目标和指标的实践问题; 3）产生与支持农村地区的年轻妇女在数学密集型职业中寻求机会有关的研究问题;（4）设计一个协调的战略计划，增加网络的技术、方案和研究基础设施，以解决实践中的问题。该项目将创建基于证据的解决方案，大大增加农村年轻妇女对数学密集型STEM职业的参与，这是一个代表性严重不足的群体。以两性平等为重点的这种规模的农村区域方案计划的制定将为建立基于代表性不足人口的资产和经验的包容性联盟提供一个模式。通过这项规划补助金获得的经验教训将通过设计为农村年轻女性构建包容性环境的举措来解决数学密集型STEM职业中的性别不平等问题。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力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 NSF INCLUDES planning grant is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion, and broadening participation in STEM at scale. The goal of this planning grant is to bring together key stakeholders in a Research-to-Practice Partnership (RPP) to broaden participation of rural K-12 girls in mathematics intensive STEM fields. Over the past 20 years, there has been a great deal of research identifying the barriers and potential pathways to STEM careers experienced by young women, but only for the general population or specific subpopulations. This project focuses on a population that has gone unnoticed and underrepresented in STEM education research - young women from rural areas of the United States. The planning grant will lay the groundwork to build a large-scale partnership and network from the ground up by combining the forces of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance (MMSA) and the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) with rural educators, young women across the Nation, 100kin10 partners, and key STEM organizations such as the Roux Institute. The RPP approach to this research will amplify the voices and experiences of rural young women, the communities they live in, the STEM business sectors they could work in, and the educators they work with, to build lasting partnerships, pathways forward, focused research questions, and a strategic plan to address this overall agenda. This planning grant will build the solid foundation needed to advance knowledge and inclusion practices across the Nation, to build a more inclusive environment, and help close the ever-widening gender gap for rural young women in mathematics intensive STEM fields. Additionally, the use of an RPP to advance this research with rural communities provides a unique model that could be scaled and replicated to address additional research questions in partnership with members of rural communities. Utilizing Expectancy-Value Theory as a framework, the PIs will initially focus their efforts on exploring the motivational beliefs of young women from rural areas across the K-12 continuum. By assembling a diverse and passionate team of researchers, practitioners, and young women, the research team will push beyond understanding the structure of the problem to identifying ways to solve the problem. The RPP activities will develop a shared vision of reform to broaden participation of rural young women in mathematics intensive career paths by collaboratively: 1) Unpacking and developing a common understanding of the problem, including identifying the specific problems of practice that construct barriers that keep young women from choosing a mathematics intensive STEM field; 2) Designing evidence-based solutions to those problems of practice that inform common goals and metrics; 3) Generating research questions related to supporting young women from rural regions in pursuing opportunities in mathematics intensive careers; and 4) Designing a coordinated strategic plan that increases the networks’ technical, programmatic, and research infrastructure to address the problems of practice. This project will create evidence-based solutions that will significantly increase rural young women’s participation in mathematics intensive STEM careers, a critically underrepresented group. The development of a rural RPP of this scale focused on gender equity will offer a model for building inclusive coalitions that are based on the assets and experiences of underrepresented populations. The lessons learned through this planning grant will address the gender inequities in mathematics intensive STEM careers by designing initiatives that build inclusive environments for rural young women.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.