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

鉴于国家需要在科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）领域组成多元化和文化能力强的劳动力，高等教育已经开始认识到文化规范必须改变，为所有STEM领域创造一个欢迎的环境。该项目旨在通过以下方式更好地了解如何扩大生物学，化学和物理学的参与：（1）检查研究生如何使用一个以上的潜在污名化身份标记（例如，宗教，种族/民族和性别）感知学术STEM的文化和气候，（2）突出有色人种研究生基于资产的叙述，以及（3）利用教师导师的平等思想指导实践。该项目还旨在通过扩大主要研究者在研究设计和使用理论为数据收集和分析提供信息方面的技能，建设STEM教育研究能力。该项目的核心是一项定性研究，研究生物学，化学和物理学研究生的颜色和他们的教师导师关于文化，气候和指导方法在学院的经验。数据收集将涉及与学生和教师导师的半结构化个人访谈以及与学生的深入焦点小组。 与会者将来自为少数群体服务的地位和研究活动水平各不相同的一系列机构。来自专业科学身份，交叉性和公平思想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涉及多重身份，如性别身份、宗教身份和种族身份。因此，为了充分考虑多重基本身份在塑造科学身份中的作用，本研究试图利用交叉性概念作为概念框架和方法工具。这项研究还旨在确定指导/学员的做法，可用于培养一个学习环境中，研究生的颜色可以茁壮成长。在整个项目过程中，主要研究者将接受个人导师和顾问委员会的指导。在该项目的后期阶段，将开发研究生定向和教师导师培训方案模块。这些模块将致力于展示有色人种研究生基于资产的叙述，并以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单元将旨在为教师导师提供培训，使其掌握如何管理与来自不同背景的学员的人际关系，以及如何认识到可能挑战既定学科规范的边缘化资本形式。该项目得到了NSF的EDU Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research（ECR：BCSER）项目的支持，该项目旨在培养研究人员开展高质量STEM教育研究的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，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。

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.