Postdoctoral Fellowship: STEMEdIPRF: Towards a Diverse Professoriate: Experiences that Inform Underrepresented Scholars' Perceptions of Value Alignment and Career Decisions

一些学院和大学努力从代表性不足的群体中招募个人进入STEM部门的教职岗位，不断努力为本科生和研究生创造更多样化、更有效、更包容的学习环境。虽然成功的教师招聘工作对于国家应对STEM教育挑战至关重要，但之前很少有研究关注那些选择退出学术生涯的学者的决策过程。该项目将关注来自代表性不足群体的学者，并认识到交叉性，即社会身份的相互联系本质，如Crenshaw所定义的种族和性别交叉性。这个博士后研究奖学金项目旨在加深我们对决定选择退出学术生涯的因素的理解。拟议的项目旨在提高来自代表性不足的群体的STEM学者对获得最终学位的职业选择过程的认识，并提高对这些选择的经验的理解。具体而言，该项目旨在解决以下研究目标：1)确定学者的价值观以及在家庭、社区和文化背景下影响这些价值观的发展经历；2)评估研究生院的经历，这些经历塑造了学者对这些价值观与学术界是否一致的看法，并将其作为就业兴趣的一个因素；3)考察随着时间的推移对学者职业决策和价值观的影响。本研究以社会认知职业理论为指导，运用现象学方法，对全国高校化学研究生中代表性不足群体的学生的职业选择过程进行了纵向定性研究。该项目由STEM教育博士后研究奖学金（STEM Ed PRF）计划资助，旨在提高STEM， STEM教育，教育和相关学科的近期博士的研究知识，技能和实践，以促进他们从事基础和应用研究的准备，从而推进该领域的知识。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。

Some colleges and universities work to recruit individuals from underrepresented groups into faculty positions in STEM departments in ongoing efforts to create more diverse, effective, and inclusive learning environments for undergraduate and graduate students. While successful faculty recruitment efforts are essential for the Nation to meet STEM educational challenges, little prior research has focused on experiences that inform the decision-making processes of scholars who opt out of academic careers. This project will focus on scholars from underrepresented groups and recognize intersectionality, that is the interconnected nature of social identities such as race and gender intersectionality, as defined by Crenshaw. This postdoctoral research fellowship project is designed to deepen our understanding of the factors that contribute to decisions to opt out of academic careers.The proposed project aims to advance knowledge of the career choice processes for STEM scholars from underrepresented groups receiving terminal degrees and advance understanding of the experiences that inform those choices. Specifically, the project is designed to address the following research aims: 1) identify scholars’ values and the developmental experiences that informed those values within the context of families, communities, and cultures; 2) evaluate graduate school experiences that shaped scholars’ perceptions of the alignment or misalignment of those values with academia as a factor in employment interests; and 3) examine influences on scholars’ career decisions and values over time. To accomplish these aims, the investigator will conduct a longitudinal qualitative study to explore the career choice processes of scholars from underrepresented groups in chemistry graduate programs at universities across the country using phenomenographic methodology and guided by Social Cognitive Career Theory.This project is funded by the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field.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.