RCN-UBE: Deepening and Expanding the Mission and Outcomes of the Re-Envisioning Culture Network

在生物科学领域授予的本科学位数量中，黑人的比例过低。这对科学创新具有影响，因为它特别与美国境内的黑人有关。因此，该项目致力于通过重点改变本科生物教学的文化和背景，解决保留和录取生物科学领域黑人学生的挑战。这项工作在很大程度上建立在现有的重新构想文化网络的基础上，通过扩大成员规模、开发教学和指导资源、培养智囊团来促进对创新方法的持续研究，以及支持新成立的合作来推进网络目标。现有的解决方案是解决黑人学生在本科 STEM 教育中留住和入学的挑战，通常会提出侧重于学生或教师发展的解决方案。虽然有利于帮助黑人学生获得特定的资源和机会，但专注于学生发展的努力往往无法解决结构性和系统性的压迫，这些压迫直接或间接地影响黑人学生的整体福祉，从而影响他们的成功。尽管教师发展努力的重点是人际和专业发展，以支持包容性或公正导向的教学和指导，但这些努力往往无法提供有形资源和持续的基础设施来确保教师在课堂空间内成功实施上述策略。在认识到这些挑战及其对黑人科学学习者和黑人社区的影响时，该项目寻求实施一种新方法，通过将生物学教学和学习置于关键的、基于优势的黑人框架内，努力改变本科生物教育的文化和背景。利用关键的、基于优势的黑人框架来创建本科生物学课程、课程、评估和教学资源，为实施和检查科学内容、课堂精神和教学实践对黑人学生成功的影响提供了机会。该项目将通过举办年度智囊团和社区战略制定活动，进一步研究创新方法，以应对保留和录取黑人学生的挑战。最后，该项目将促进新网络和协作努力的形成，以推进研究和教学，重点是将黑人集中在科学、技术、工程和数学教学中的认识论上。该项目由生物科学局生物基础设施司和教育与人力资源局本科教育司联合资助，作为其努力解决本科生物教育愿景和变革：行动呼吁 (http://visionandchange/finalreport/) 中提出的挑战的一部分。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。

People who identify as Black are disproportionately underrepresented in the number of undergraduate degrees awarded in the biological sciences. This has implications for scientific innovations as it specifically relates to Black people within the United States. This project thus strives to address challenges with retaining and matriculating Black students in the biological sciences by focusing on transforming the culture and context of undergraduate biology teaching and learning. The work builds significantly on the existing Re-Envisioning Culture Network through expanding membership, development of the teaching and mentoring resources, fostering thinktanks to promote continued investigations into innovative approaches, and supporting newly formed collaborations that advance the network goals.Existing attempts to address the challenge with retaining and matriculating Black students in undergraduate STEM education often propose solutions that focus on either student or faculty development. While beneficial with helping Black students obtain specific resources and opportunities, endeavors focused on student development often fail to address structural and systemic forms of oppression that both explicitly and implicitly impact Black students’ holistic well-being and, thus their success. Though faculty development endeavors focus on interpersonal and professional development that support inclusive or justice-oriented teaching and mentoring, these endeavors often fail to provide tangible resources and sustained infrastructure to ensure faculty members’ successful implementation of said strategies within their classroom spaces. In recognizing these challenges and their implications for Black science learners and the Black community writ large, this project seeks to implement a new approach that strives to transform the culture and context of undergraduate biology education by situating biology teaching and learning within critical, strengths-based frameworks of Blackness. Leveraging critical, strengths-based frameworks of Blackness to create undergraduate biology curricula, lessons, assessments, and teaching resources presents the opportunity to implement and examine the impact that science content, classroom ethos, and pedagogical praxes have on Black students’ success. This project will further investigate innovative ways to address challenges with retaining and matriculating Black students by hosting annual thinktanks and community strategizing endeavors. Lastly, this project will facilitate the formation of new networks and collaborative endeavors that advance research and teaching focused on centering Blackness onto-epistemologies within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teaching and learning. This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure, and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/).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.