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

从谁获得本科学位到阻碍科学家日后职业生涯的不平等机会和结果，在STEM领域持续存在的种族差异是显而易见的。过去的研究表明，与教师、咨询和本科生研究的接触可以减少种族不平等，但目前尚不清楚这些是否以及如何在所有STEM领域发挥作用。该项目将探索这些经历如何为具有种族、性别、收入和第一代身份等交叉身份的本科生创造“STEM微气候”。这项研究将开发模型，帮助大学创建和微调项目，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检查和调整影响STEM种族不平等的政策和做法的方法。该项目还将为大学如何与受种族差异影响最大的种族边缘化和少数群体密切合作开展这项工作提供一个模式。该项目采用一种创新的方法，对十多年来的机构、成绩单和调查数据的交叉性进行定量建模。该研究项目以学生的经历和与交叉包容性相关的成果为中心，考察了STEM微气候，或者学术课程在多大程度上支持来自不同交叉社会位置的学生，为他们提供追求学位和未来职业的资源和机会。项目目标包括：(1)建模和分解种族差异的纵向模式及其与STEM领域相关的性别和社会经济差异的关系，这些差异与种族边缘化和少数民族学生的日常互动和学术参与有关；(2)加强交叉包容性的概念化，将其作为学生不同经历的STEM微气候学术结构中可识别的组织嵌入特征；(3)通过使用纵向数据和潜在变量对STEM微气候进行建模，解决交叉性理论定量应用的局限性。除了推进批判性理论的使用并将其与定量建模策略相结合以检查STEM不平等之外，强调学生在组织环境中的交叉社会位置有助于通过定量数据利用学生的声音，这些数据说明了交叉性的细微差别。该项目的研究和规划组成部分确保与受STEM领域系统性不平等影响最严重的群体合作和伙伴关系进行分析、发现意义和影响，从而产生与科学和政策相关的知识，同时促进有针对性和有效的战略，使STEM领域更加种族平等。该项目由STEM教育中的种族平等项目（EHR种族平等）资助。该项目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。获奖项目旨在将STEM企业中受系统性不平等影响最大的个人、社区和机构的声音、知识和经验集中起来。该项目符合美国国家科学基金会的核心价值，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种族平等的资金来自EHR各个项目，以表彰其项目与董事会四个部门的集体研究和开发重点的一致性。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。

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.