CAREER: Black Feminist Epistemologies: Building a Sisterhood in Computing

教师早期职业发展（CAREER）计划是国家科学基金会范围内的活动，提供奖励，以支持早期职业教师谁有潜力作为研究和教育的学术榜样，领导他们的部门或组织的使命的进步，并建立一个基础，在整合教育和研究的领导终身。这个职业项目探讨了目前就读于本科计算学位课程的黑人女性的中学后经历，以引起人们对黑人女性在计算方面所忍受的种族和性别不平等的关注。尽管努力有意增加在计算领域的妇女招聘和保留，黑人妇女的代表性仍然严重不足。以性别为重点的努力未能增加黑人女性在计算领域的人数，因为他们没有认识到种族和性别的交叉如何塑造黑人女性的经历，包括她们在计算领域的保留。最近的研究表明，在以白色为主的机构（PWI）就读本科计算机学位课程的黑人女性证明了缺乏支持，指导，以及阻碍他们完成学位的资源。有些人选择退出这些计划。这些结果表明，明确关注在PWI注册的黑人妇女的额外研究对于解决黑人妇女在计算中的代表性不足至关重要。它与最近的国家科学院报告一致，该报告建议检查有色人种女性在整个职业生涯中关键时刻的经历。该项目利用黑人女权主义认识论和黑人妇女的认识方式，作为本研究的关键框架。该项目利用姐妹圈的概念来创造反空间，以建立社区和抵制结构性压迫。姐妹圈放大了黑人女性的声音，因为她们参与了关于导航各自计算学位课程学生的经验的亲密对话。此外，黑人女本科计算学生将分享有关如何结构性压迫在计算教育的背景下运作的信息，并制定策略来抵制结构性压迫。从这项研究的结果将产生经验，深入了解黑人女本科生在PWI计算学位课程的经验，确定其进展过程中的关键拐点，预测黑人妇女的能力，坚持计算。此外，将开发一个姐妹圈工具包，使PWI能够建立一个有效的社区，支持黑人妇女在计算。这个社区包括获得近同行的导师，资源和有关职业发展机会的信息，作为对黑人妇女在高等教育中经历的压迫和创伤的对策。该项目由STEM教育核心研究理事会（Directorate for STEM Education Core Research，ECR）项目资助，旨在支持推动STEM学习和学习环境的基础研究、扩大STEM参与度和STEM劳动力发展的工作。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值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 explores the postsecondary experiences of Black women currently enrolled in undergraduate computing degree programs to draw attention to racial and gender inequalities that Black women in computing endure. Despite efforts to intentionally increase the recruitment and retention of women in the field of computing, Black women remain acutely underrepresented. Gender-focused efforts have fallen short of increasing the number of Black women in computing because they fail to acknowledge how the intersection of race and gender shape Black women’s experiences, including their retention in the field of computing.Recent studies reveal that Black women enrolled in undergraduate computing degree programs at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) attest to the lack of support, mentorship, and resources that impede their ability to complete their degrees. Some choose to withdraw from these programs. Such results suggest that additional research explicitly focused on Black women enrolled at PWIs is essential for addressing the underrepresentation of Black women in computing. It aligns with the recent National Academies of Science Report, which recommends examining the experiences of women of color at critical junctures throughout their career. This project leverages Black feminist epistemologies and Black women’s ways of knowing, as critical frameworks of this research. The project utilizes the concept of sister circles to create counter spaces to build community and resist structural oppression. Sister circles amplify the voices of Black women as they engage in intimate conversations about experiences navigating their respective computing degree programs students. Additionally, Black women undergraduate computing students will share information about how structural oppression operates in the context of computing education and devise strategies to resist structural oppression. Results from this research will generate empirical, in-depth knowledge of Black women undergraduate students’ experiences in computing degree programs at PWIs, identifying critical inflection points during their progression that predict Black women’s ability to persist in computing. Additionally, a sister circle toolkit will be developed that enables PWIs to build an effective community of support for Black women in computing. This community includes access to near-peer mentors, resources, and information about career development opportunities as a countermeasure to the oppression and trauma that Black women experience in higher education. This project is funded by the Directorate for STEM Education 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.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.