Context, Culture & STEM Education

智力优势：拟议的研究旨在探索选定社区的美国印第安人和阿拉斯加土著学生及其教师如何利用与科学和数学教育相关的文化经验。拟议的研究旨在提供更有力的证据基础，以支持STEM环境的持续改进及其随后的传播。拟议研究的结果可能会为多种教育背景下STEM教育的发展提供信息。该研究的目标是：(1)确定社区和文化概念以及学生对其遗产的体验如何影响他们在学校遇到的数学和科学的理解方式；(2)了解哪些因素对于正确识别和衡量环境和文化如何影响美国印第安人和阿拉斯加土著人口的科学和数学学习至关重要；(3)确定教师的实践如何结合和建立学生的经验，因为传统形式的STEM知识在学校被引入和发展；(4)开发一种基于研究的框架和方法，帮助土著群体评估社区内存在的基于文化的科学和数学知识形式，以及这些地方形式如何与正规教育环境中认可的形式相关联。为了更多地了解如何满足这些需求，在第一年，研究人员将访问七个社区，从中选择四个具有最突出和最多样化的与文化相关的科学和数学教学项目，并为强大的研究合作提供机会。在第二年进行的主要数据收集期间，研究人员将在四个选定社区中的每个社区进行两次实地访问，为期六人周。数据将系统地收集在五个方面：社会文化背景、地点影响、人际交往、种族相关知识和教师呈现传统STEM知识的实践。最后访问期间的数据收集将侧重于扩展理解和解决第二年迭代分析产生的调查领域。更广泛的影响：本研究解决了与农村原住民学生数学和科学教育相关的教与学研究基础不足的问题。本研究中发展的知识将明确有助于正在进行的对话，即如何协调文化上不同的知识和知识构建方法，并将其有益地纳入课堂，作为追求所有学生公平和强大的STEM教育的一部分。在这一比较探索性研究中确定的框架和方法将为今后大规模调查其对其他人群的适用性奠定基础。

Intellectual Merit: The proposed study is designed to explore ways in which American Indian and Alaskan Native students and their teachers in selected communities make use of cultural experiences relevant to science and mathematics education. The proposed research is intended to provide a stronger evidentiary base to support sustained improvements in STEM settings and their subsequent diffusion. The findings from the proposed research may inform the development of STEM education in multiple educational contexts.The goals of the study are (1) to determine how community and cultural concepts, and student experiences with their heritage, impact the ways they make sense of the mathematics and science they encounter in school; (2) to understand what factors are critical to properly identifying and measuring the ways in which context and culture shape the learning of science and mathematics in American Indian and Alaskan Native populations; (3) to determine ways in which teachers' practices incorporate and build upon students' experiences as conventional forms of STEM knowledge are introduced and developed in school; and (4) to develop a research-based framework and methods that can help indigenous groups assess the forms of culturally-based science and mathematics knowledge that exist within communities, and how those local forms can be related to the ones that are recognized in formal education settings.To learn more about how to address these needs, in year one researchers will visit seven communities to select four that have the most prominent and varied culturally-related science and mathematics instructional programs and that offer opportunities for strong research collaboration. During the main data collection carried out in year two, researchers will spend six person-weeks spread over two field visits at each of the four selected communities. Data will be gathered systematically in five areas: sociocultural context, influence of place, interpersonal interactions, ethnically-related knowledge, and teacher practices of presenting conventional STEM knowledge. Data collection during a final visit will focus on extending understanding and addressing areas for investigation that arise from iterative analysis in year two.Broader Impact: This study addresses the insufficient research base on teaching and learning related to the mathematics and science education of rural, indigenous students. The knowledge developed in this study will contribute explicitly to the ongoing dialogue about how culturally different approaches to knowledge and knowledge construction can be reconciled and beneficially incorporated in the classroom as part of the pursuit of equitable and powerful STEM education for all students. The framework and methods identified within this comparative exploratory study will form the basis for future large-scale investigations of their applicability to other populations.