Postdoctoral Fellowship: STEMEdIPRF: Understanding instructor and student concepts of race to measure the prevalence of race essentialism in biology education

种族本质论是一种错误的信念，认为种族是一种固有的生物特征，导致了不同的种族类别。虽然种族本质主义已被证明与更多的偏见、刻板印象和偏见相关，但提高学生对种族的理解已被证明降低了这些扭曲的信念。该项目旨在通过评估STEM教师和学生对种族的信念，提高交叉意识，并针对课堂上关于种族的误解提出建议，以服务于国家利益。这些建议最终将有助于改进STEM教育，这对教授种族和族裔具有重要意义，并可能导致社会对种族的更准确理解。这个项目测量了本科生生物教师和学生的种族概念，并将这些信息与现有的生物教育文献和多样性、公平性和包容性专家的建议相结合，通过反本质主义和文化相关的镜头，为本科生生物学中的种族和祖先教学创造了全面的指导方针。种族偏见直接伤害了历史上被边缘化和被排斥的社区，但人们对个别教职员工和学生如何看待种族概念或如何通过课程材料加强种族概念知之甚少。虽然目前几乎所有的研究都支持一种社会建构的种族观点，但种族本质主义在公众和科学研究中仍然很流行。生物学的STEM教育者在对抗本质主义种族观点方面处于独特的地位，并对我们的学生和更广泛的社会产生了积极的影响。本项目旨在实现以下目标：(1)探索教生物学的STEM教师的教育实践和信念；(2)分析本科生生物学学生的种族概念以及他们如何回应这些主题的教学；(3)通过对学生和教师的深入访谈，扩展教师和学生的种族概念(1和2)；以及(4)创建和传播新的指导方针，通过找出与种族相关的生物教育中的差距和失误来解决这些问题。该项目将通过总结生物课程中教授种族和祖先的方式，并针对特定的种族误解制定指导方针和建议，来改进STEM教育。该项目由NSF的STEM教育博士后研究奖学金计划(STEM Ed PRF)和卡莱塔·A·杜林基金会共同资助。STEM教育博士后研究奖学金计划(STEM ED PRF)旨在提高STEM、STEM教育、教育和相关学科的新近博士的研究知识、技能和实践，以促进他们从事基础和应用研究，促进该领域知识的发展。卡莱塔·A·杜林基金会通过与国家科学基金会的合作，寻求促进STEM/STEM教育研究工作队伍的更大多样性。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，被认为值得支持。

Race essentialism is the incorrect belief that race is an inherent biological characteristic resulting in distinct race categories. While race essentialism has been shown to be correlated with increased bias, stereotypes, and prejudice, improving student understandings of race has been shown to lower these distorted beliefs. This project is designed to serve the national interest by assessing beliefs about race of STEM instructors and students, increasing awareness of intersectionality, and developing recommendations targeting misconceptions about race in the classroom. These recommendations will ultimately inform improvements in STEM education which is of significance to teaching race and ethnicity and could result in more accurate understandings of race in society. This project measures undergraduate biology instructors’ and students’ concepts of race and combine this information with existing biology education literature and recommendations from experts in diversity, equity, and inclusion to create comprehensive guidelines for teaching race and ancestry in undergraduate biology through anti-essentialist and culturally relevant lenses. Racial biases directly harm historically marginalized and excluded communities, but little is known about how race concepts are perceived by individual faculty and students or reinforced by curricular materials. While virtually all current research supports a socially constructed view of race, race essentialism is still prevalent among the public and within scientific research. STEM educators in biology are in a unique position to counteract essentialist views of race and have a positive impact on both our students as well as the broader society. This project is designed to accomplish the following goals: (1) Explore the educational practices and beliefs of STEM instructors who teach biology, (2) Analyze the race concepts of undergraduate biology students and how they respond to instruction on these topics, (3) Expand upon instructor and student race concepts (1&2) with in-depth interviews of students and instructors, and (4) Create and disseminate new guidelines to address these issues by identifying gaps and missteps in biology education related to race. This project will improve STEM Education by creating a summary of the ways race and ancestry are taught in biology courses and by developing guidelines and recommendations that target specific race misconceptions. This project is supported by NSF’s STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) Program with co-funding from The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation. 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. The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation through a partnership with the National Science Foundation seeks to promote greater diversity within the STEM/STEM education research workforce.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.