CAREER: Advancing Equity in Middle School Mathematics by Engaging Students and Families of Color in Participatory Design Research

全国各地的学校和学区试图解决种族不平等问题，但在学习机会、结果和经历方面仍然存在巨大差距。此外，那些种族不公正负担最重的人--即有色人种学生及其家庭--很少有意义地被纳入构思和实施面向公平的倡议。政策制定者和管理人员经常将课程和教学改革视为应该为这些学生和家庭做的事情，而不是与他们一起或由他们做的事情。拟议的项目旨在调查使用参与式方法进行研究和设计的可能性和挑战，以黑人、土著、拉丁裔和苗族学生及其家庭为中心，想象和创造变化。这种做法有可能扰乱数学教育的不公平做法，以及就数学教育作出决定的不民主进程。此外，它还将成为数学教育中发展种族公正做法和过程的催化剂。这一职业奖项由发现研究预科-12项目(DRK-12)资助，该项目旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高预科-12学生和教师在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)方面的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发努力的基础上，这些研究和开发工作为拟议的项目提供了理论和经验证明。该项目还得到了STEM教育种族公平项目(EHR Race Equity)的支持，该项目支持通过研究和实践促进STEM教育和劳动力发展中的种族公平的项目。该项目将产生关于参与式设计研究(PDR)的可能性和局限性的新知识，作为一种方法，在项目的五年时间里，通过参与式设计研究(PDR)周期在三所中学推进数学教育公平。这些周期包括有色人种家庭参与数学活动，分享他们的经验，收集与他们的经验密切相关的数据，并为在数学教育中创造更公平的做法和政策提出建议。因此，与传统的研究方法相比，PDR周期提供了一种更民主、更平等的方式来理解和解决社会问题。这项研究的最终教育活动包括与PDR相关的研究生水平课程的开发。该项目还将提供突破性的证据，说明家庭、教育工作者和学校领导人如何利用PDR来改变权力动态，并通过以有色人种学生及其家庭的声音和知识为中心，对数学教育进行系统性改变。它将增加关于有色人种学生及其家庭如何理解数学教育中的种族公平和正义的少量文献。他们的观点对于指导以公平和正义为导向的研究和实践至关重要。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。

Schools and districts around the country seek to address racial inequities, yet vast disparities in learning opportunities, outcomes, and experiences persist. Furthermore, those who bear the heaviest burdens of racial injustice—namely, students of color and their families—are rarely meaningfully included in conceptualizing and implementing equity-oriented initiatives. Policymakers and administrators have often treated curricular and pedagogical change as something that should be done to or for these students and families, not with or by them. The proposed project seeks to investigate the possibilities and challenges of using a participatory approach to research and design, centering Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Hmong students and their families in imagining and creating change. This approach has the potential to disrupt inequitable practices of mathematics education as well as undemocratic processes for making decisions about mathematics education. Further, it will be a catalyst for developing racially just practices and processes in mathematics education. This CAREER award is funded by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12), which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models, and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. This project is also supported by the Racial Equity in STEM Education program (EHR Racial Equity), which supports projects that advance racial equity in STEM education and workforce development through research and practice.This project will generate new knowledge about the possibilities and limitations of participatory design research (PDR) as a method for advancing equity in mathematics education through PDR cycles at three middle schools over the five years of the project. These cycles include families of color participating in mathematical activity, sharing their experiences, collecting data germane to their experiences, and making recommendations to create more equitable practices and policies in mathematics education. Thus, PDR cycles provide a more democratic and egalitarian means of understanding and addressing social problems than traditional research methods. Educational activities culminating from this research include the development of graduate-level curriculum related to PDR. This project will also contribute groundbreaking evidence of how families, educators, and school leaders can use PDR to shift power dynamics and make systemic change in mathematics education by centering the voices and knowledge of students of color and their families. It will add to the small body of literature regarding how students of color and their families understand racial equity and justice in mathematics education. Their perspectives are essential to inform equity- and justice-oriented research and practice.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.