Planning grant: Expanding academic Careers through Inclusive Transitions in Environmental Science

由于人与地球之间的关系与文化遗产和社区交织在一起，环境工作人员的多样化至关重要。经验的差异带来独特的问题、解决问题的方法、更大的协作创造力和创新；然而，从研究生入学人数来看，地球科学是STEM领域中多样性最低的。这项计划拨款名为“通过环境科学的包容性转型扩大学术生涯”，旨在扩大、培养和嵌入新墨西哥大学环境和地球科学领域的各种学者的机构支持。新墨西哥大学是位于干旱、高沙漠环境中的少数民族服务机构（MSI）。该奖项将支持各种活动，为环境科学领域的不同学者建立包容性的职业阶段过渡，使他们能够通过自我创作理论来破坏环境和地球科学领域历史和正在进行的权力结构。通过这种方式，研究人员将开发必要的条件，以实现在新墨西哥大学和美国西南部少数民族服务机构网络中的集体影响原则。该项目将通过培训和研讨会提高包容性指导和研究的机构能力，全面支持多元化的学者；创造近同伴网络机会，促进社会归属感；发展公平和实质性的地方专业伙伴关系。这将为一个完整的项目实施奠定基础，该项目将为处于关键职业过渡点的两个群体提供为期一年的规划：从学士到研究生学习或专业职业（学士后学者），从博士到学术教师或非学术研究职业（博士后学者）。该奖项将在这些阶段的学生中试行暑期项目，并培训教师导师采用包容性指导策略，包括为环境科学领域的不同学者制定和使用量身定制的个人发展计划。这一规划阶段还将用于发展专业和学术网络，以协同支持美国西南部少数民族服务机构的这些目标。该项目以批判建构主义和自我创作理论为基础。批判建构主义基于这样的假设：对现实的认识和理解——包括自我的身份——是基于与世界的互动和经验，包括那些受到社会、文化和历史影响的经验。该项目的转型规划将支持自我创作的认知维度以及人际和个人发展，以促进自我创作，同时考虑到地球科学中发现的历史权力结构。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。

As the relationships between people and the planet are interwoven with cultural heritage and community, diversifying the environmental workforce is of pressing importance. Differences in experience bring unique questions, approaches to problems, greater collaborative creativity, and innovation; however, the geosciences are the least diverse STEM field based on graduate student enrollment. This planning grant, Expanding academic Careers through Inclusive Transitions in Environmental Science, aims to expand, foster, and embed institutional support for diverse scholars in the environmental and geosciences at the University of New Mexico–an R1, Minority Serving Institution (MSI) situated in an arid, high-desert setting. This award will support activities to build inclusive career-stage transitions for diverse scholars in environmental science, empowering them through the theory of self-authorship to disrupt historical and ongoing power structures within the environmental and geosciences. In this way, the researchers will develop the necessary conditions to achieve the principles of Collective Impact at UNM and across a network of minority-serving institutions in the US Southwest. This project will holistically support diverse scholars by increasing institutional capacity for inclusive mentorship and research through training and workshops; create near-peer networking opportunities to promote social belonging; and develop equitable and substantive local professional partnerships. This will lay the groundwork for a full program implementation that would support year-long programming for two cohorts at critical career transition points: from bachelors to graduate studies or professional career (post-baccalaureate scholars) and from PhD to academic faculty or non-academic research career (postdoctoral scholars). This award will pilot summer programming for cohorts at each of these stages, and train faculty mentors in inclusive mentoring strategies, including development and use of a tailored Individual Development Plan for diverse scholars in environmental science. This planning stage will also be used to develop professional and academic networks to collaboratively support these goals across Minority Serving Institutions in the U.S. Southwest. The project is grounded in critical constructivism and self-authorship theory. Critical constructivism is based on the assumption that knowledge and understanding of reality–including identities of self–are based on interactions with and experiences of the world including those experiences that are socially, culturally, and historically inflected. The project's transformational programming will support both cognitive dimensions of self-authorship and interpersonal and intrapersonal development to facilitate self-authorship, taking the historical power structures found in the geosciences into account.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.