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

据估计，在2014年至2024年期间，将有超过60万个工程和工程技术职位空缺，但美国没有足够的职业准备大学毕业生来满足这些预计的需求。许多学生有能力成为工程师，但却没有，因为他们(a)不了解工程师是做什么的，或者(b)不认为自己有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为普遍。工程人员的多样化可以为工程挑战带来更多样化的解决方案。K-12年级缺乏工程知识可能会限制从事工程职业的学生数量。该项目促进部落和社区学院与周边农村和部落学区之间的伙伴关系，吸引农村和土著小学生参加以工程为重点的活动，这些活动将有助于激励他们并为他们从事与工程相关的职业做好准备。专业学习社区由在职和在职的小学教师、来自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，他们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现场的工程活动，以提高3 - 5年级学生对工程相关职业的认识、兴趣和准备。学生和他们的家人将通过照片杂志记录他们对学习、知识和工程的看法，这些照片将与课堂观察一起使用，以确定学生目前对工程的看法，并为学生制定基于地点的工程干预措施，这些干预措施与部落和社区学院的编程和研究有关。蒙大拿农村地区和蒙大拿境内七个部落保留地的居民拥有丰富的地方知识储备。孩子们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，创造身份的资金，作为他们观察和吸收新信息和新身份的透镜。本项目探讨了身份资金与工程身份发展之间的联系，以及影响这种关系的中介因素。项目团队与教师合作，确定可用于确定小学生身份基金和当前对工程的看法的方法。然后，专业学习社区成员利用这些信息为学生制定基于地点的工程干预措施。研究设计是一个多案例研究，其中小比格霍恩学院（部落学院）和合作保留地小学作为案例a，加勒廷学院（社区学院）和合作农村学校作为案例b。定量和定性数据来自多个时间点的学生、教师、部落和社区学院合作伙伴，使研究人员能够跨越时间和背景来检查干预措施。数据在个人、个案和跨个案层面进行分析，以检查学生、教师和社区层面的影响。对儿童身份基金和工程身份之间联系的探索，将为教育工作者如何利用身份基金创造有意义的学习体验提供有价值的见解，让学生认识到他们知识的价值，并支持他们的工程身份发展。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。

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.