A Synthesis of Approaches to Equity, Belonging, and Broadening Participation in Museums and Makerspaces

尽管长期以来一直在考虑和尝试解决多样性、公平、可获得性和包容性问题，但博物馆、植物园和动物园等游客服务组织往往服务于不成比例的白人、健全和高收入观众。传统上，应对这一挑战的努力侧重于降低壁垒(成本、运输等)为了让更多的人参与到非正式的科学学习中来。近年来，该领域开始呼吁采取面向公平和反压迫的方法，不仅质疑谁参与，而且质疑如何重新设计非正式科学学习，以集中那些在STEM领域经历被边缘化的人的需求和兴趣。虽然这种转变是有希望的，但学习往往被孤立在以身份为中心的竖井中。例如，解决种族不平等问题的人不经常参与关于使残疾人更容易获得非正式科学的研究。在这个项目中，匹兹堡儿童博物馆将与EdTogether、斯佩尔曼学院和罗切斯特大学华纳教育学院合作，通过与青年和从业者合作，对非正式科学学习中的公平性和归属感工作进行系统审查，将这些不同的学习领域结合在一起。审查将产生关于项目团队如何在他们的工作中谈论和制定公平和归属感的见解，该项目将产生资源，支持未来的项目超越身份的简单定义，以便全面满足学习者的需求。该项目将使用六步综合过程来审查大约7000个关于博物馆、制造空间、植物园、动物园和其他为游客服务的机构中的公平和归属感的非正式科学努力的经验来源。研究问题将调查外地关于公平和归属感的含蓄和明确的哲学；外地制定反压迫做法的程度；项目如何融合多种反压迫做法；以及以公平和归属感为重点的工作如何随时间和背景而变化。该项目将是成熟的专业研究人员和联合研究奖学金计划参与者之间的合作，青年和成人从业者将通过该计划向研究的所有阶段提供信息并参与其中。联合研究员也将是该项目努力的联合制作人，该项目旨在推动变革，深化非正式科学整合反压迫镜片的方式。这包括非正式科学专业人员将考虑如何将项目学习融入正在进行的变革结构；一篇期刊文章；会议会议；以及一本面向实践者的迷你书，其中将分享在非正式科学领域开展综合反压迫工作的见解和工具。该项目的评估将提供指导，说明合作研究如何挑战谁可以进行研究的观念；扩大访问者和实践者对现有非正式科学学习研究的接触；通过参与研究和关于研究的决策，扩大合作研究人员的STEM和倡导技能；通过与实践者和访问者的需求保持一致，提高研究过程和结果的相关性和有效性。这个综合项目由推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划资助，该计划支持以下项目：(A)促进研究和实践，认为非正式STEM学习在STEM中的公平和归属感方面的作用；(B)促进STEM中的个人和教育成功；(C)促进公众对科学发现的参与；(D)培养对STEM职业的兴趣；(E)为有效的非正式STEM学习创造和加强理论和经验基础；(F)增强社区活力；和/或(G)加强科学交流以及公众对STEM和STEM进程的参与和了解。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，认为值得支持。

Despite a long history of considering and attempting to address issues of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, visitor-serving organizations such as museums, botanical gardens, and zoos tend to serve disproportionately white, able-bodied, and high-income audiences. Traditionally, efforts to address this challenge have focused on reducing barriers (cost, transportation, etc.) in order to get more people to participate in informal science learning experiences. In recent years, the field has begun to call for equity-oriented and anti-oppressive approaches that question not only who participates but how informal science learning can be re-designed to center the needs and interests of people whose experiences are marginalized in STEM fields. While this shift is promising, the learning tends to be isolated in identity-focused silos. For example, people addressing racial inequities are not often engaged with research about making informal science more accessible for people with disabilities. In this project, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh in partnership with EdTogether, Spelman College, and the Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester will bring together these distinct domains of learning by working with youth and practitioners to conduct a systematic review of equity and belonging work in informal science learning. The review will generate insights about how project teams talk about and enact equity and belonging in their work and the project will produce resources that will support future projects to move beyond simplistic definitions of identity in order to holistically embrace learners' needs.This project will use a six-step synthesis process to review approximately 7,000 empirical sources about equity and belonging-focused informal science efforts in museums, makerspaces, botanical gardens, zoos, and other visitor-serving institutions. The research questions will investigate the implicit and explicit philosophies of equity and belonging in the field; the extent to which the field enacts anti-oppressive practices; the ways in which projects blend multiple anti-oppressive practices; and how equity and belonging-focused work has varied over time and context. This project will be a collaboration among established, professional researchers and participants in a Co-Research Fellowship program through which youth and adult practitioners will inform and engage in all stages of the research. Co-Research Fellows will also be co-producers of the project's efforts to initiate change to deepen the ways informal science integrates anti-oppressive lenses. This includes a charrette through which informal science professionals will consider the ways they can integrate the project learnings into ongoing structures for change; a journal article; conference sessions; and a practitioner-oriented mini-book that will share insights and tools for conducting integrative anti-oppressive work in the informal science field. The project's evaluation will offer guidance about how co-research can challenge notions of who can do research; extend visitors' and practitioners' exposure to existing informal science learning research; expand co-researchers' STEM and advocacy skills through participation in and decision-making about research; and enhance the relevance and validity of the research process and findings through alignment with practitioner and visitor needs.This Synthesis project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports projects that: (a) contribute to research and practice that considers informal STEM learning's role in equity and belonging in STEM; (b) promote personal and educational success in STEM; (c) advance public engagement in scientific discovery; (d) foster interest in STEM careers; (e) create and enhance the theoretical and empirical foundations for effective informal STEM learning; (f) improve community vibrancy; and/or (g) enhance science communication and the public's engagement in and understanding of STEM and STEM processes.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.