Transforming STEM Career Pathways: Examining a Multigenerational Mentorship Environment to Support Persistence of Women of Color Pursuing STEM Education at Community Colleges

转变 STEM 职业道路：审视多代指导环境，以支持有色人种女性坚持在社区学院追求 STEM 教育

• 批准号: 2044354
• 负责人: Vivian Halloran
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-07-01 至 2024-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2044354&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Transforming; STEM; Career; Pathways; Examining

This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing the success of women of color (Black/African American, Latina, Asian American, and Indigenous women) who are pursuing STEM education at two-year institutions. Women remain significantly underrepresented in many STEM fields and in the educational pathways that lead into those fields. This situation has been attributed to gender-based experiences that result in feelings of invisibility and isolation. Such experiences tend to be exacerbated for women who hold other marginalized identities, such as social class, citizenship, age, and race. Yet, most efforts designed to broaden STEM participation try to advance student persistence by targeting singular marginalized identities. Researchers have cited the importance of developing a dual race- and gender-based social network to increase student success. The importance of an intersectional approach is even greater because of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts on women of color. In addition to managing their own education in an online format, many women of color have major responsibilities in maintaining their families' health and survival during the pandemic. These efforts often require managing food, financial, and housing insecurity while navigating complex, disjointed support systems. Advancing STEM participation of women of color requires the creation of spaces that holistically support the complex interplay of their intersecting identities. In these “counterspaces,” women of color can develop asset-based narratives and the mindset and skills needed to thrive academically and psychologically. This project will examine the effectiveness of a culturally responsive counterspace that features multigenerational mentorship and is focused on wellbeing and thriving. It is expected that this counterspace will promote the persistence of women of color in their pursuit of STEM education.The project will evaluate the effectiveness of a program designed to address the psychological and emotional challenges that women of color experience in pursuing STEM careers. Project goals include include applying the model of counterspaces and multigenerational mentoring to women of color in community college and understanding the ways in which an explicit focus on STEM identity development and psychosocial wellbeing may affect STEM persistence among women of color at community colleges. To achieve these goals, the project team will conduct a multi-methodological research study and a program evaluation comprised of both process and outcome evaluation components. This study will add to the understanding of counterspaces, including the specific features of counterspaces that support STEM identity development of women of color at community colleges. The study expects to identify the ways in which activities that employ multigenerational mentorship can promote feelings of belonging, emergent STEM identities, and STEM persistence of women of color at the community college. The research will expand understanding of the factors that inform the decision-making processes of Black/African American, Latina, Asian American, and Indigenous women in community colleges who complete a two-year program and enter the STEM workforce or transfer into a four-year STEM program, or do not persist in STEM. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, 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.

该项目旨在通过提高在两年制院校接受STEM教育的有色人种女性（黑人/非裔美国人、拉丁裔、亚裔美国人和土著女性）的成功程度，为国家利益服务。在许多STEM领域以及进入这些领域的教育途径中，女性的代表性仍然明显不足。造成这种情况的原因是基于性别的经历使人产生被忽视和孤立的感觉。对于拥有其他边缘化身份（如社会阶层、公民身份、年龄和种族）的女性来说，这种经历往往会加剧。然而，大多数旨在扩大STEM参与的努力都试图通过针对单一的边缘化身份来提高学生的持久性。研究人员指出，建立一个以种族和性别为基础的双重社交网络对于提高学生的成功非常重要。鉴于2019冠状病毒病大流行对有色人种女性的影响，交叉方法的重要性就更大了。除了以在线形式管理自己的教育外，许多有色人种妇女在大流行期间还肩负着维护家人健康和生存的主要责任。这些努力往往需要在应对复杂、脱节的支持系统的同时，解决粮食、财政和住房不安全问题。促进有色人种女性参与STEM需要创造空间，从整体上支持她们相互交叉的身份的复杂相互作用。在这些“抗衡空间”中，有色人种女性可以发展基于资产的叙事，以及在学术和心理上茁壮成长所需的心态和技能。该项目将研究一个具有多代师徒关系的文化响应对抗空间的有效性，并专注于福祉和繁荣。预计这一抗衡空间将促进有色人种女性在追求STEM教育方面的坚持。该项目将评估一个项目的有效性，该项目旨在解决有色人种女性在追求STEM职业时遇到的心理和情感挑战。项目目标包括将抗衡空间模型和多代指导模型应用于社区大学的有色人种女性，并了解明确关注STEM身份发展和心理社会健康可能影响社区大学有色人种女性坚持STEM的方式。为了实现这些目标，项目团队将进行多方法的研究和由过程和结果评估组成的项目评估。本研究将增加对对抗空间的理解，包括支持社区大学有色人种女性STEM身份发展的对抗空间的具体特征。该研究希望确定采用多代师徒制的活动如何促进社区大学有色人种女性的归属感、新兴的STEM身份和STEM持久性。这项研究将扩大对社区大学中黑人/非裔美国人、拉丁裔美国人、亚裔美国人和土著妇女的决策过程的理解，这些妇女完成了两年的课程，进入了STEM劳动力队伍，或转入了四年的STEM课程，或没有坚持学习STEM。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。通过参与学生学习轨道，该计划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。