STEM Microclimates of Intersectional Inclusivity: Modeling Interrelated Programmatic Features and their Relationships to Racial Academic Disparities

在STEM领域，从获得本科学位的人到阻碍科学家日后职业生涯的机会和结果不平等，持续存在的种族差异非常明显。过去的研究表明，与教员、建议和本科生研究的联系可以减少种族不平等，但尚不清楚这些是否以及如何在所有STEM领域发挥作用。这个项目将探索这样的经历如何为具有交叉身份的本科生创造“STEM小气候”，包括种族、性别、收入和第一代身份。这项研究将开发模型，以帮助大学创建和微调课程，以更好地支持STEM领域中代表性不足和边缘化的群体。该项目将为大学提供一种更有效地利用数据来审查和调整影响STEM种族不平等的政策和做法的方法。该项目还将提供一个模式，说明大学如何与受种族差异影响最大的种族边缘化和少数族裔社区密切合作开展这项工作。该项目使用一种创新的方法，利用跨越十年的机构、成绩单和调查数据对交叉性进行量化建模。该研究项目考察了STEM的小气候，重点是与跨领域包容性相关的学生经验和结果，或者学术项目在多大程度上支持来自不同跨领域社会位置的学生，与他们追求学位和未来职业的资源和机会有关。项目目标包括：(1)模拟和分解民族差异的纵向模式及其与STEM领域相互关联的性别和社会经济差异的关系，这些模式与被种族边缘化和被边缘化的学生的日常互动和学术参与有关；(2)加强跨部门包容性的概念化，将其作为一个组织嵌入的特征，可在学生经历不同的STEM小气候的学术结构中确定；以及(3)通过使用纵向数据和潜在变量对STEM微气候进行建模，解决过去定量应用交叉性理论的局限性。除了推进批判性理论的使用并将其与量化建模策略相结合来检查STEM不平等之外，对嵌入组织背景中的学生的跨部门社交位置的重视有助于通过量化数据来利用学生的声音，这些数据说明了交叉性的细微差别。该项目的研究和方案部分确保与受STEM领域系统性不平等影响最大的人合作和建立伙伴关系，进行分析、理解结果和影响，以便在体制变革的同时产生科学和政策相关的知识，促进有针对性和有效的战略，使STEM领域在种族上更加公平。该项目由STEM教育种族平等项目(EHR种族平等)资助。该计划支持研究和实践项目，调查种族平等因素如何影响科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)教育和劳动力的改善。获奖项目寻求集中受STEM企业内部系统性不平等影响最大的个人、社区和机构的声音、知识和经验。该计划符合NSF的核心价值，即支持来自全国不同人口群体、地区和组织类型的杰出研究人员和创新思想家。EHR种族公平的资金从整个EHR的项目中汇集起来，以表彰其项目与理事会四个部门的集体研发推动力的一致性。这一奖项反映了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。

Persistent racial disparities are notable across STEM fields from who receives undergraduate degrees to the unequal opportunities and outcomes that hamper scientists’ careers later in life. Past research shows that contact with faculty, advising, and undergraduate research can reduce racial inequities, but it is not clear whether and how these work in all STEM fields. This project will explore how experiences like these create “STEM microclimates” for undergraduates with intersecting identities including race, gender, income, and first generation status. This research will develop models to assist universities with creating and fine-tuning programs to better support underrepresented and marginalized groups in STEM fields. This project will provide an approach for universities to more effectively use data to examine and adjust policies and practices that affect STEM racial inequities. The project will also provide a model for how universities can do this work in close collaboration with racially marginalized and minoritized communities who are most affected by racial disparities.This project uses an innovative approach to quantitatively model intersectionality with institutional, transcript, and survey data spanning over a decade. The research project examines STEM microclimates centered on student experiences and outcomes related to intersectional inclusivity, or the extent to which academic programs support students from varied intersectional social locations in relation to the resources and opportunities to pursue their academic degrees and future careers. Project goals include (1) modeling and disaggregating longitudinal patterns of ethnoracial disparities and their relationship to interrelated gender and socioeconomic disparities in STEM fields that are connected to the everyday interactions and academic engagement of racially marginalized and minoritized students, (2) strengthening the conceptualization of intersectional inclusivity as an organizationally-embedded feature identifiable in the academic structures of STEM microclimates differentially experienced by students, and (3) addressing past limitations of quantitative applications of intersectionality theory through modeling of STEM microclimates with longitudinal data and latent variables. Beyond advancing the use of critical theories and melding them with quantitative modeling strategies to examine STEM inequities, the emphasis on intersectional social locations of students embedded within organizational contexts contributes to knowledge about leveraging student voices through quantitative data that speak to the nuances of intersectionality. Research and programmatic components of the project ensure that analyses, sense-making of findings, and the implications are made in collaboration and partnership with those most affected by systemic inequities in STEM fields such that scientific and policy-relevant knowledge are generated in conjunction with institutional transformation promoting targeted and effective strategies to make STEM fields more racially equitable. This project is funded through the Racial Equity in STEM Education program (EHR Racial Equity). The program supports research and practice projects that investigate how considerations of racial equity factor into the improvement of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce. Awarded projects seek to center the voices, knowledge, and experiences of the individuals, communities, and institutions most impacted by systemic inequities within the STEM enterprise. This program aligns with NSF’s core value of supporting outstanding researchers and innovative thinkers from across the Nation's diversity of demographic groups, regions, and types of organizations. Funds for EHR Racial Equity are pooled from programs across EHR in recognition of the alignment of its projects with the collective research and development thrusts of the four divisions of the directorate.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.