Collaborative Research: Broadening participation of marginalized scholars in STEM: The longitudinal influence of early-career climate experiences on professional pathways

高等教育一直在努力在扩大各级学生对STEM的参与方面取得有意义的进展。人与环境契合度（PE Fit）研究表明，拥有一个与个人需求、技能和价值观相一致的组织环境，教育和职业成果都会得到改善。由于PE Fit是在多个组织层面上理论化的，因此本研究将在STEM研究小组、部门和学科的层面上研究包容性气候。本研究将以PE Fit理论为基础，通过解决环境的两个新方面：1)作者气候，在整个STEM研究过程中，知识贡献得到充分欢迎和重视；2)COVID-19大流行，这对早期职业STEM学者的个人和职业生活造成了前所未有的破坏。总体目标是增加对早期职业气候和COVID-19大流行对STEM职业成果（生产力和态度）和职业路径的纵向影响的理解，特别是对于来自边缘群体的学者。这项拟议的研究是在先前工作的基础上进行的一项混合方法研究，该研究在COVID-19大流行的第一年（时间1）对3500多名研究生、博士后学者和生物学、经济学、物理学和心理学助理教授进行了调查。该项目将支持对学者进行纵向随访调查（时间2），以研究学术气候和COVID-19对职业成果和路径的影响。该调查将辅以深度访谈（在时间3）与不同的子样本（n = 80）的参与者。这些访谈将深入了解学者如何理解、驾驭和塑造学术气候，以及多层次的气候如何相互作用，如何与COVID-19的破坏相互作用，从而影响专业道路。重要的是，这项研究包括大量具有多个交叉社会身份的个体，这将允许沿着许多因素分解，这将增加对研究的理解。对学术氛围的关注是基于与教师、博士后学者和研究生的职业成果直接相关的文献，包括他们的生产力、承诺、离职意向和满意度。这项研究将有助于加深对气候因素在STEM教育、研究和工作环境中的影响的理解，将有助于改善所有这些环境的气候。本项目由美国国家科学基金会EHR核心研究（ECR）项目支持。ECR项目强调在该领域产生基础知识的基础STEM教育研究。投资在至关重要、广泛和持久的关键领域：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大STEM参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。该项目支持积累有力的证据，为理解、构建理论进行解释提供依据，并提出干预和创新建议，以应对教育中持续存在的挑战。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。

Higher education has struggled to make meaningful progress in broadening the participation in STEM at all levels. Person-Environment Fit (PE Fit) research reveals that education and career outcomes are improved by having an organizational environment that is congruent with one’s needs, skills, and values. Because PE Fit is theorized at multiple organizational levels, this study will examine inclusive climate at the levels of the STEM research group, department, and academic discipline. This study will build upon the PE Fit theory by addressing two novel aspects of environment: 1) authorship climate, in which intellectual contributions are fully welcomed and valued throughout the STEM research process, and 2) the COVID-19 pandemic, which created unprecedented disruptions in the personal and professional lives of early-career STEM scholars. The overarching goal is to increase understanding about the longitudinal effects of early-career climates and the COVID-19 pandemic on STEM career outcomes (productivity and attitudes) and professional pathways, especially for scholars from marginalized groups. This proposed research is a mixed-methods study building on prior work that resulted in a survey of over 3500 graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and assistant professors in biology, economics, physics, and psychology in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (time 1). This project will support a longitudinal follow-up survey (time 2) of the scholars to examine the effect of academic climates and COVID-19 on career outcomes and pathways over time. The survey will be complemented with in-depth interviews (at time 3) with a diverse subsample (n = 80) of the participants. These interviews will provide insight into how scholars make sense of, navigate, and shape academic climates, and how multiple levels of climate interact with each other and with COVID-19 disruptions, to affect professional pathways. Importantly, this study includes a large number of individuals with multiple intersecting social identities which will allow for disaggregation along many factors which will increase understanding from the research. The focus on academic climates is based on the literature that directly links to faculty, postdoctoral scholar, and graduate student career outcomes including their productivity, commitment, turnover intentions, and satisfaction. This study will help increase understanding of the impact of climate factors in STEM education, research, and workplace environments will contribute to improving the climate of these settings for all.This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The program supports the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to understand, build theory to explain, and suggest intervention and innovations to address persistent challenges in education.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.