STEM Undergraduate Education for Minoritized Students: A Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Study of the STEM Experiences of Hmong American College Students

少数民族学生的 STEM 本科教育：美国苗族大学生 STEM 经历的纵向混合方法研究

• 批准号: 2201693
• 负责人: Matthew Wolfgram
• 金额: $ 220.03万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2201693&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STEM; Undergraduate; Education; Minoritized; Students

While progress has been made to increase enrollment numbers and graduation rates for ethnic and racial minorities in STEM, significant disparities remain. More investigations and interventions are needed to improve the educational outcomes for students of color in STEM. As a group, Asian American students are often excluded from these inquiries because they have shown positive gains in STEM education and career attainment, constituting 13% of the science and engineering workforce. However, when the data on “Asian” subgroups is separated, it is clear that Southeast Asian Americans (i.e., Cambodian, Lao, Vietnamese, and Hmong) are being overlooked and underserved. Despite having one of the lowest high school and undergraduate degree attainment rates in the nation, the struggles of Southeast Asian populations are often erased because of a “model minority stereotype” that views Asian Americans as a uniformly prosperous immigrant community and obscures the reality that Asian Americans deal with structural racism, poverty, and inadequate educational supports. This award expands on an ongoing research project conducted by University of Wisconsin (UW)–Madison educational researchers and Hmong student activists to investigate the STEM college experiences of Hmong students at the 13 campuses in the UW System. This study directly addresses NSF’s program goals by cultivating authentic, engaged partnerships with Hmong American students, scholars, and communities, and by centering the knowledge and voices of those impacted by the inequities caused by systemic racism in order to advance racial equity within STEM pathways. Active involvement of students and other stakeholders in this research will have broader impacts on the Hmong community throughout Wisconsin and beyond.Pilot research examining the experiences of Hmong American undergraduate students at UW–Madison identified several factors, such as advising, gatekeeping mechanisms, and racial climate, that affectively redirected and/or pushed out Hmong-identified students from competitive STEM majors. In this NSF-funded project, researchers will investigate this “redirection” phenomenon by examining the sociocultural and institutional factors that impact the STEM pathways of Hmong American college students. A survey will be administered to Hmong American students at all 13 UW System universities and a longitudinal interview study will be conducted at three UW System institutions that serve Hmong American students. The study will fill major gaps in the literature by 1) considering the specific educational needs of individual Asian American populations and their intersectional social identities; 2) deepening the discussion of recruitment, retention, and graduation pathways; and 3) engaging students in decision-making processes that affect their higher education experiences using a participatory action research approach. This mixed-methods, longitudinal, multi-sited study will provide robust and complementary evidence to serve as the evidentiary basis to theorize factors impacting the STEM pathways and attainment of Hmong and other minoritized college students. These results will form the basis for efforts to develop institutional practices and policies supporting more inclusive STEM education at UW. It will also serve as the basis for similar studies in other groups of underrepresented and underserved students in STEM. This collaborative 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.

虽然在增加少数民族和种族在STEM的入学人数和毕业率方面取得了进展，但仍然存在重大差距。需要更多的调查和干预措施，以改善有色人种学生在STEM的教育成果。作为一个群体，亚裔美国学生经常被排除在这些调查之外，因为他们在STEM教育和职业成就方面表现出积极的进步，占科学和工程劳动力的13%。然而，当“亚洲”亚组的数据被分开时，很明显，东南亚裔美国人（即，柬埔寨人、老挝人、越南人和苗族人）被忽视，服务不足。尽管拥有全国最低的高中和本科学位获得率之一，东南亚人口的斗争往往被抹去，因为“模范少数民族刻板印象”将亚裔美国人视为一个统一繁荣的移民社区，并掩盖了亚裔美国人处理结构性种族主义，贫困和教育支持不足的现实。该奖项扩大了由威斯康星州（UW）-麦迪逊教育研究人员和苗族学生活动家大学进行的一个正在进行的研究项目，以调查苗族学生在UW系统的13个校区的STEM大学经验。这项研究直接解决了NSF的计划目标，通过培养真实的，与苗族美国学生，学者和社区的合作伙伴关系，并通过集中知识和那些受系统性种族主义造成的不平等影响的声音，以促进STEM途径内的种族平等。学生和其他利益相关者在这项研究的积极参与将有苗族社区在整个威斯康星州和beyond.Pilot研究苗族美国本科生在威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的经验更广泛的影响确定了几个因素，如咨询，看门机制，和种族气候，有效地重定向和/或推出苗族识别的学生从竞争激烈的STEM专业。在这个NSF资助的项目中，研究人员将通过研究影响苗族美国大学生STEM途径的社会文化和制度因素来调查这种“重定向”现象。一项调查将管理苗族美国学生在所有13个UW系统大学和纵向访谈研究将在三个UW系统机构，为苗族美国学生进行。这项研究将填补文献中的主要空白，1）考虑个别亚裔美国人的特定教育需求及其交叉社会身份; 2）深化招聘，保留和毕业途径的讨论;和3）让学生参与决策过程，影响他们的高等教育经验使用参与式行动研究方法。这种混合方法，纵向，多站点的研究将提供强大的和补充的证据，作为证据基础，理论化影响苗族和其他少数民族大学生的STEM途径和成就的因素。这些结果将成为努力发展机构实践和政策的基础，支持UW更具包容性的STEM教育。它还将作为对STEM领域其他代表性不足和服务不足的学生群体进行类似研究的基础。这个合作项目是通过STEM教育计划中的种族平等（EHR种族平等）资助的。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。获奖项目旨在集中STEM企业内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。该计划符合NSF的核心价值观，即支持来自全国人口群体，地区和组织类型多样性的优秀研究人员和创新思想家。EHR种族平等基金来自EHR各项目，以表彰其项目与董事会四个部门的集体研究和开发目标的一致性。该奖项反映了NSF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。