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

研究：像我一样：利用身份基金增强农村/保留社区的工程职业追求

• 批准号: 2415592
• 负责人: Rebekah Hammack
• 金额: $ 41.52万
• 依托单位: Purdue University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-02-15 至 2024-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2415592&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Research; Looks; Like; Me; Leveraging

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.

据估计，在2014年至2024年之间，将有超过60万工程和工程技术职位的职位空缺，但美国没有生产足够的职业就绪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，但没有因为他们（a）不了解工程师的工作，或者（b）不认为自己拥有成为工程师所需的能力；对于女性和少数群体等代表性不足的群体来说，这尤其普遍。使工程劳动力多样化可能导致更多样化的解决方案，以解决工程挑战。 K-12年级的工程缺乏接触可能会限制从事工程职业的学生人数。该项目促进了部落和社区学院以及周围的农村和部落学区之间的合作伙伴关系，使农村和土著小学生与以工程为重点的活动一起参与，这将有助于激励和准备与工程相关的职业。由前和在职基础教师，伙伴部落和社区学院的讲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，目的是为教师提供基于安装的工程活动的设计和实施，以增强3年级学生对3年级学生的意识，对探索工程师的兴趣，并准备工作。学生及其家人将通过摄影期刊记录他们对学习，知识和工程的看法，这些期刊将与课堂观察一起使用，以确定学生当前对工程学的看法，并开发基于地方的工程干预措施，以针对部落和社区学院进行的计划和研究建立联系。儿童将这些家庭和社区资金内部化，以创造意义并定义自己，创造身份资金，这些资金充当镜头，通过这些镜头，他们可以看到并吸收新的信息和新身份。该项目探讨了身份资金与工程身份发展的资金与为这一关系的中介因素之间的联系。项目团队与教师互动，以识别可用于识别基本学生身份和当前工程认识的资金的方法。然后，专业学习社区成员利用此信息来为学生开发基于地方的工程干预措施。该研究设计是一项多个案例研究，与小霍恩学院（Tribal College）一起，并将预订小学作为案例A和加勒廷学院（社区学院），并与乡村学校合作。对个人进行分析，包括案例和跨案例级别，以检查学生，老师和社区水平的影响。探索儿童身份资金与工程认同之间的联系将提供宝贵的见解，以了解教育者如何利用身份资金来创造有意义的学习经验，使学生能够认识到他们的知识价值并支持其工程身份发展的价值。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，反映了通过使用基金会的智力效果和广泛的评估来进行评估。