CAREER: Critically examining chemistry culture to support adoption of multiculturally inclusive practices

学院早期职业发展(Career)计划是国家科学基金会范围内的一项活动，旨在为有潜力在研究和教育中充当学术榜样的早期教师提供支持，在其部门或组织的使命中领导进步，并为终身领导教育和研究的整合奠定基础。这一职业项目旨在调查STEM中因族裔或种族(同龄人)而被排除在外的人的经历，并指导化学学位课程文化的变革努力。学术文献表明，旨在支持科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域的多样性、包容性和公平性的计划和资源并未实现同行成果的公平。这项研究建立在这样的理论基础上，即在STEM中实现公平的结果将需要在系统层面上进行转变，包括价值观、假设和行为。了解化学文化及其对同龄人体验的影响将有助于催化围绕化学多样性、公平性和包容性的系统性变革。本研究将采用定性的方法，征求同龄人对化学文化的经验。将分析影响学科中可见行为、结构和系统的隐含的价值观、行为和假设。了解这些经验将有助于对化学文化的普遍理解，这种文化可用于为促进多样性、公平和包容性的变革努力提供信息。还将开发反故事，以提升挑战化学现有系统和结构的个性化账户。教育活动包括根据研究结果开发STEM研究生课程。这门课程将支持研究生对复制不平等的习惯性做法进行批判性审查，努力改变现有的行为，并建立实施具有文化包容性和与背景相关的实践的能力。随着时间的推移，将研究本课程的影响，以加强对有效的、以公平为重点的教学实践的理解。该奖项的部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。该项目还得到了EHR核心研究(ECR)计划的资助，该计划支持推进STEM学习和学习环境的基础研究、扩大STEM的参与以及STEM劳动力发展的工作。此外，该项目还得到了STEM教育种族公平计划(EHR Race Equity)的支持，该计划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。

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program is a National Science Foundation-wide activity that offers awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization, and to build a foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. This CAREER project aims to investigate the experiences of persons excluded because of ethnicity or race (PEERs) in STEM and guide change efforts in the culture of chemistry degree programs. Scholarly literature demonstrates that programs and resources designed to support diversity, inclusion, and equity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields have not achieved equity in outcomes for PEERs. The study builds from the theory that achieving equitable outcomes in STEM will require transformation at the systemic level, including values, assumptions, and behaviors. Understanding chemistry culture and its influence on PEERs’ experiences will help to catalyze systemic transformation around diversity, equity, and inclusion in chemistry.Using qualitative methods, the research will solicit PEERs’ experiences with chemistry culture. Implicit values, behaviors, and assumptions that influence visible behaviors, structures, and systems in the discipline will be analyzed. Understanding these experiences will contribute to a generalized understanding of chemistry culture that can be used to inform change efforts that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion. Counterstories will also be developed to elevate individualized accounts that challenge existing systems and structures in chemistry. Education activities include the development of a STEM graduate course based on research findings. The course will support graduate students in critical examination of habitual practices that reproduce inequity, endeavoring to shift existing behaviors and build capacity for implementing culturally inclusive and contextually relevant practices. The impacts of this course will be studied over time to enhance understanding of effective, equity-focused instructional practices. This award is funded in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This project is also funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. In addition, this project is 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 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.