Challenging Cultural Norms through Asset-focused Narratives: Examining Intersecting Stigmatized Identities from Graduate Student and Faculty Perspectives in the Natural Sciences

鉴于国家对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域组成多样化和文化胜任的劳动力的需求，高等教育已经开始认识到，必须改变文化规范，为所有STEM领域的人创造一个友好的环境。该项目旨在通过(1)研究具有多个潜在污名化身份标记（例如宗教，种族/民族和性别）的研究生如何感知学术STEM的文化和气候，(2)突出有色人种研究生的基于资产的叙述，以及(3)利用教师导师的公平思想指导实践，更好地理解如何扩大生物，化学和物理的参与。该项目还旨在通过扩大首席研究员在研究设计和运用理论为数据收集和分析提供信息方面的技能，建立STEM教育研究的能力。该项目的核心是一项定性研究，考察有色人种生物、化学和物理研究生及其教师导师在学院文化、气候和指导方法方面的经历。数据收集将包括对学生和教师导师的半结构化个人访谈，以及对学生的深入焦点小组。参与者将从具有不同少数民族服务地位和研究活动水平的一系列机构中选出。来自专业科学认同、交叉性和公平指导理论的概念将为数据分析提供信息。科学身份的一个显著特征是它与其他多重身份相关，如性别身份、宗教身份和种族身份。因此，为了充分考虑多重潜在身份在塑造科学身份中所起的作用，本研究试图利用交叉性概念作为概念框架和方法论工具。本研究还试图确定指导/指导者的做法，可以用来培养一个学习环境，使有色人种研究生能够茁壮成长。在整个项目中，首席研究员将受到个人导师和顾问委员会的指导。在项目的后期阶段，将开发研究生指导和教师导师培训计划的模块。这些模块将努力展示有色人种研究生基于资产的叙事，并以一种变革的方式拥抱文化和社会身份的互动、积极的例子。此外，这些针对特定群体和特定学科的培训模块将旨在为教师导师提供培训，以管理与来自不同背景的学员的人际关系，并认识到可能挑战预先建立的学科规范的边缘化资本形式。该项目得到了美国国家科学基金会EDU STEM教育研究核心研究能力建设（ECR: BCSER）项目的支持，该项目旨在培养研究者开展高质量STEM教育研究的能力。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。

Given the national need for a compositionally diverse and culturally competent workforce in the field of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), higher education has begun to recognize that cultural norms must change to create a welcoming environment for all in STEM fields. This project aims to create greater understanding of how to broaden participation in biology, chemistry, and physics by (1) examining how graduate students with more than one potentially stigmatizing identity marker (e.g., religion, race/ethnicity, and gender) perceive the culture and climate of academic STEM, (2) foregrounding asset-based narratives of graduate students of color, and (3) leveraging faculty mentors’ equity-minded mentoring practices. This project is also designed to build capacity in STEM education research by expanding the principal investigator’s skills with research design and the use of theory to inform data collection and analysis. The core of the project is a qualitative study examining the experiences of biology, chemistry, and physics graduate students of color and their faculty mentors regarding culture, climate, and mentoring approaches in the academy. Data collection will involve semi-structured individual interviews with students and faculty mentors as well as in-depth focus groups with students. Participants will be drawn from a range of institutions with different minority-serving status and levels of research activity. Concepts from theories of professional science identity, intersectionality, and equity-minded mentoring will inform data analysis. One of the salient characteristics of science identity is that it relates to multiple other identities, such as gender identity, religious identity, and ethnic identity. Thus, to fully consider the role multiple underlying identities play in shaping science identity, this study seeks to leverage the concept of intersectionality as both a conceptual framework and a methodological tool. This study also seeks to identify mentoring/ mentee practices that can be used to cultivate a learning environment in which graduate students of color can thrive. Throughout the project, the principal investigator will be mentored by both an individual mentor and an advisory board. In the latter stages of the project, modules for graduate student orientation and faculty mentor training programs will be developed. These modules will strive to showcase asset-based narratives of graduate students of color with interactive, positive examples of embracing cultural and social identities in a transformative manner. Further, these group-specific and discipline-specific training modules will aim to provide faculty mentors training in managing interpersonal relationships with mentees from diverse backgrounds and in recognizing marginalized forms of capital that may challenge pre-established disciplinary norms. The project is supported by NSF’s EDU Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) program, which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research.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.