Research Initiation: Studying the Implementation and Efficacy of an African-Centered Pedagogy and Curriculum for the STEM Education of African American Learners

本项目将探讨当非洲裔美国人的经验作为教学方法和课程的基础时，对非裔美国人青年的影响。意识独创性(CI)是少数几个利用以非洲为中心的方法向幼儿园至八年级的非裔美国学生教授科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)概念的项目之一，以鼓励和支持他们对STEM领域的兴趣、追求、接触和参与。目前，美国各地都有许多STEM项目，通过接触该领域来提高人们对STEM的兴趣和参与度。然而，这些项目利用传统的方法教授STEM概念，无法创造一个包容性的学习环境。虽然传统的STEM教学旨在发展和加强批判性思维、解决问题和探索性学习等跨学科技能，但欧洲历史和文化是其核心。非裔美国人的文化和贡献被完全忽视，这些排斥削弱了非裔美国人的STEM教育经验。这项研究将帮助研究团队从以非洲为中心的角度确定具体的教学策略和材料，以支持和鼓励非裔美国STEM学习者的兴趣、参与和理解。我们预计结果将证明，当非裔美国STEM学习者接受以他们的经验为中心、提供足够资源并在公共环境中得到培养的教学法和课程时，他们是有能力的学习者。到目前为止，很少有工作调查使用以非洲为中心的教学法和课程来鼓励和支持非裔美国STEM学习者的兴趣、参与度和理解力的有效性。为了弥补这一差距，我们的研究目的是通过分析意识独创性项目的教学策略和材料，并评估学生对STEM概念的学习和工程认同的形成，来检验以非洲为中心的STEM教育方法和课程在非裔美国青年STEM教育中的实施和效果。我们以下列研究问题为指导：“以非洲为中心的教学方法和课程以何种方式影响工程知识的构建？”以及“以非洲为中心的教学法如何影响学生对工程概念的学习和城市非裔美国青年的工程认同的形成？”为了解决这些问题，我们将进行一个分两个阶段的混合方法案例研究。研究性研究的第一阶段将首先研究CI的讲师，考察他们的教学策略和材料。研究性研究的第二阶段通过评估参与者对特定主题的理解和工程认同的形成，将调查的重点转移到衡量教师使用的教学策略和材料的有效性上。拟议研究的结果将有助于努力纠正STEM教育中的种族不平等现象。这些种族不平等包括但不限于对文化反应迟钝的传统STEM教学方法、获得技术的机会有限、技术素养不足、以欧洲为中心的智力观点、不健康的学生-教师关系以及缺乏教师-家庭-社区关系。采用拟议的教学方法将为所有学生培养一个有效学习的包容性环境，而这种包容性减少了传统的一刀切的STEM教学方法。这种包容性的学习环境将提高社会意识，这是培养和谐多元社区所必需的现象。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will explore the impact on African American youth when the African American experience is the basis of the teaching methods and curriculum. Conscious Ingenuity (CI) is one of few programs that utilizes an African-centered approach to teach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) concepts to African American students in kindergarten to eighth grade to encourage and support their interest, pursuit of, access to, and involvement in STEM fields. Currently, many STEM programs exist throughout the United States to increase interest and participation in STEM through exposure to the field. However, these programs utilize a traditional approach to teaching STEM concepts which fails to create an inclusive learning environment. While conventional STEM teaching aims to develop and strengthen interdisciplinary skill sets such as critical thinking, problem-solving and exploratory learning, European history and culture are at its core. African American culture and contributions are completely ignored, these exclusions weaken the African American STEM educational experience. This research study will help the research team identify specific instructional strategies and materials from an African-centered perspective that supports and encourages the interest, engagement and comprehension of African American STEM learners. We anticipate the results will demonstrate that when African American STEM learners are instructed with a pedagogy and curriculum that centers their experience, provided adequate resources and nurtured in a communal environment, they are capable learners.Little work to date has investigated the efficacy of using an African-centered pedagogy and curriculum to encourage and support the interest, engagement and comprehension of African American STEM learners. To address this gap, the objective of our research is to examine the implementation and efficacy of an African-centered pedagogy and curriculum on the STEM education of African American youth by analyzing the instructional strategies and materials of the Conscious Ingenuity program, and evaluating student learning of STEM concepts and formation of engineering identity. We are guided by the following research questions: “In what ways does an African-centered pedagogy and curriculum influence the construction of engineering knowledge?” and “How does an African-centered pedagogy impact student learning of engineering concepts and engineering identity formation for urban African American youth?”. To address these questions, we will conduct a two-phase mixed-methods case study. The first phase of the research study will begin by studying the instructors of the CI by examining their instructional strategies and materials. The second phase of the research study shifts the focus of the investigation to measuring the effectiveness of the teaching strategies and materials instructors use by assessing the participants' understanding of particular topics and engineering identity formation. The findings of the proposed research will contribute to efforts to redress racial inequities in STEM education. These racial inequities include but are not limited to culturally unresponsive traditional STEM teaching methods, limited access to technology, inadequate technological literacy, eurocentric intellectual perspectives, unhealthy student-teacher relationships, and the absence of teacher-family-community relationships. The adoption of the proposed pedagogical approach will cultivate an inclusive environment for all students to learn effectively, where such inclusion diminishes the conventional one size fits all approach to teaching STEM. This inclusive learning environment will increase social consciousness, a phenomenon necessary for cultivating harmonious diverse communities.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.