Research: Looks Like Me: Leveraging Funds of Identity to Enhance Engineering Career Pursuits in Rural/Reservation Communities

据估计，2014-2024年间将有超过60万个工程和工程技术职位空缺，但美国培养的大学毕业生不足以满足这些预计的需求。许多学生有能力成为工程师，但没有，因为他们(A)不了解工程师是做什么的，或(B)不认为自己具备成为工程师所需的能力；这在女性和少数族裔等代表性不足的群体中尤其常见。工程人员的多样化可能会带来更多样化的解决方案来应对工程挑战。K-12年级缺乏工程学经验，可能会限制追求工程学职业的学生数量。该项目促进部落和社区大学与周围农村和部落学区之间的伙伴关系，使农村和土著小学生参与以地方为重点的工程学活动，这将有助于激励他们从事与工程学有关的职业，并为他们做好准备。由职前和在职小学教师、合作部落和社区学院的教师以及蒙大拿州立大学的教师组成的专业学习社区将在整个项目中共同努力，目标是支持教师设计和实施基于安置的工程活动，以提高3-5年级学生对从事与工程相关的职业的意识、兴趣和准备。学生和他们的家人将通过照片日记记录他们对学习、知识和工程学的看法，这些日记将与课堂观察一起使用，以确定学生对工程学的当前看法，并为学生制定以地点为重点的干预措施，将其与部落和社区大学正在进行的编程和研究联系起来。蒙大拿州农村和蒙大拿州七个部落保留地的居民拥有大量的当地知识基金。儿童将这些家庭和社区的知识和资源内化，以创造意义和定义自己，创造身份认同基金，作为他们观察和吸收新信息和新身份的透镜。这个项目探索了认同资金和工程认同发展之间的联系，以及影响这种关系的中介因素。该项目团队与教师合作，以确定可以用来确定小学生身份资金和当前对工程的看法的方法。这些信息随后被专业学习社区成员用来为学生开发以地点为基础、以工程为重点的干预措施。研究设计是一个多案例研究，小大角学院(部落学院)和伙伴保留小学作为案例A，加拉丁学院(社区学院)和伙伴乡村学校作为案例B。定量和定性数据都是从多个时间点的个别学生、教师以及部落和社区大学合作伙伴收集的，使研究人员能够跨时间和背景检查干预。数据在个人、案例中和跨案例级别进行分析，以检查学生、教师和社区级别的影响。这项对儿童认同基金和工程认同基金之间关系的探索将为教育工作者如何利用认同基金创造有意义的学习体验提供宝贵的见解，使学生认识到他们知识的价值，并支持他们的工程认同发展。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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。

It is estimated that there will be over 600,000 engineering and engineering technology job openings between 2014 - 2024, yet the United States is not producing enough career ready college graduates to meet these projected demands. Many students are capable of becoming engineers but do not because they (a) do not understand what engineers do or (b) do not think they have the abilities needed to become an engineer; this is particularly common for underrepresented groups such as females and minorities. Diversifying the engineering workforce could result in more diverse solutions to engineering challenges. A lack of exposure to engineering in grades K-12 could limit the number of students pursuing engineering careers. This project fosters partnerships between tribal and community colleges and the surrounding rural and tribal school districts to engage rural and indigenous elementary students in place- based engineering-focused activities that will help motivate and prepare them for engineering- related careers. Professional learning communities consisting of pre and in-service elementary teachers, instructors from partner tribal and community colleges, and faculty from Montana State University will work together throughout the project with the goal of supporting teachers in the design and implementation of placed-based engineering activities to increase 3rd - 5th grade students' awareness of, interest in, and preparedness to pursue engineering related careers. Students and their families will document their views about learning, knowledge, and engineering through photo journals which will be used, along with classroom observations, to identify students' current perceptions of engineering and to develop place-based engineering- focused interventions for the students that connect to the programming and research happening at the tribal and community colleges.The citizens of rural Montana and the seven tribal reservations within Montana have a great wealth of local funds of knowledge. Children internalize these family and community funds of knowledge and resources to make meaning and define themselves, creating funds of identity that serve as a lens through which they view and absorb new information and new identities. This project explores the connections between funds of identity and engineering identity development and the mediating factors that inform this relationship. The project team engages with teachers to identify methods that can be used to identify elementary students' funds of identity and current perceptions of engineering. This information is then utilized by professional learning community members to develop place-based engineering-focused interventions for students. The research design is a multiple case study with Little Big Horn College (tribal college) and partnering reservation elementary schools as Case A and Gallatin College (community college) and partnering rural schools as Case B. Both quantitative and qualitative data are collected from individual students, teachers, and tribal and community college partners at multiple time points, allowing researchers to examine the intervention across time and contexts. Data are analyzed at the individual, with-in case, and cross-case levels to examine student, teacher, and community level impacts. This exploration of the connections between funds of identity and engineering identity in children will provide valuable insight into how educators can leverage funds of identity to create meaningful learning experiences that allow students to recognize the value of their knowledge and support their engineering identity development.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.