GSE/RES: The Role of Social Interaction in the Development of Scientist Identities and the Retention of Undergraduate Women in Science Majors

本研究结合传统的启发式（调查和访谈）方法与民族志检查自然发生的社会互动，在正式和非正式的教育背景下，本科专业在三个学科，他们仍然代表不足-物理，化学，和数学（“科学”）--为了确定在促进女大学生科学家身份的发展方面最有效的互动类型，他们在国家的管道走向科学事业。该项目利用了加州大学圣巴巴拉的独特情况，通过各种途径为传统的文学和科学学院以及小型创新学院的本科生提供科学指导。选择UCSB作为研究地点，可以比较课堂、实验室和非正式环境中出现的与科学相关的社会互动，同时保持相对恒定的许多变量，这些变量会干预跨机构的比较。也有人假设，科学家身份的显示将有利于在研究环境等背景下，这允许学生提出索赔或介绍新的信息，而不是报告已经确定的事实。 分析的主要重点是女性在本科科学的经验和互动，但男性本科科学专业的所有三个群体都包括在内，以提供跨性别比较。预计促进女性留在科学领域的互动也将促进男性留在科学领域，因此，基于调查结果的教育建议不仅有助于女性在科学事业中取得进步，而且还将扩大美国科学家的队伍。详细了解鼓励女性采用科学家身份并坚持STEM专业的特定语言和international实践对于增加在STEM领域寻求职业的女性数量至关重要。这项研究建立在现有的研究结果关于社会互动的作用，在本科妇女的保留在干，但提供了一个新的概念和方法的方向，这个问题的调查，从报告的经验领域扩展到迄今为止很少探索的竞技场自然发生的科学相关的社会互动在本科水平。此外，以前关于性别和本科科学教育的大量研究强调了阻碍女性追求科学的因素，而拟议的研究则侧重于通过宣布科学专业而对科学做出承诺的本科女性，以发现与科学相关的日常社会互动如何有助于科学家身份的发展和保留在国家科学管道中。拟议研究的更广泛影响将使研究结果对教育工作者有用，对全国学生有益。首先，该研究的定量和定性相结合的方法对最终用户和分析师都是互补的：虽然定量数据的优点是可以进行概括，从而指导教育政策和实践的广泛战略，但定性数据是具体的，具体的，背景丰富的，因此它们比定量证据更有效地向教育工作者，家长，学生们了解与妇女留在科学领域有关的具体实习做法。研究结果将通过在高中的演讲、网站和信息视频等方式传播给学术研究界。这些工具将把调查结果带给学生、家长、教育工作者和公众。

This study combines traditional elicitation (survey and interview) methodologies with the ethnographic examination of naturally occurring social interaction in formal and informal educational contexts among undergraduate majors in three disciplines in which they remain underrepresented--physics, chemistry, and mathematics ("science")--in order to determine the sorts of interactions that are most effective in facilitating the development of scientist identities among undergraduate women and retaining them in the national pipeline toward science careers. The project takes advantage of the unique situation of UC Santa Barbara, which delivers science instruction to undergraduates both in a traditional letters and sciences college and in a small, innovative college via a variety of pathways. The selection of UCSB as a research site allows for comparison of science-related social interactions that arise within classroom, laboratory, and informal settings while holding relatively constant many of the variables that would intervene in a cross-institution comparison.It is anticipated that reporting a scientist identity will correlate with displaying such an identity interactionally via linguistic features. It is also hypothesized that the display of a scientist identity will be favored in contexts such as research settings, which allow students to make claims or introduce new information rather than report already established facts. The primary focus of the analysis is on women's experiences and interactions in undergraduate science, but male undergraduate science majors in all three groups are included to provide a cross-gender comparison. It is expected that interactions that promote women's retention in science will also promote men's, and hence the educational recommendations based on the findings will not only help women advance in science careers but will also expand the ranks of U.S. scientists generally.Intellectual merit: A detailed understanding of the specific linguistic and interactional practices that encourage women to adopt scientist identities and to persist in STEM majors is of crucial importance in increasing the number of women seeking careers in STEM. The study builds on existing findings regarding the role of social interaction in undergraduate women's retention in STEM, yet offers a new conceptual and methodological direction for the investigation of this issue by expanding from the domain of reported experiences to the heretofore little-explored arena of naturally occurring science-related social interaction at the undergraduate level. In addition, where a great deal of previous research on gender and undergraduate science education emphasizes factors inhibiting women's pursuit of science, the proposed study focuses on undergraduate women who have made a commitment to science by declaring a science major, in order to discover how daily science-related social interactions contribute to the development of a scientist identity and to retention in the national science pipeline.Broader impacts: The broader impacts of the proposed study will make the findings useful to educators and beneficial to students nationwide. First, the study's combined quantitative and qualitative methods are complementary for the end user as well for analysts: while quantitative data have the advantage of allowing for generalizations that can guide broad strategies of educational policy and practice, qualitative data are concrete, specific, and context-rich, and hence they will be more effective than quantitative evidence in demonstrating to educators, parents, and students the specific interactional practices associated with women's retention in science. The results will be disseminated to the academic research community and through outreach via presentations at high schools, via a website and informational video. These tools will bring the findings to students, parents, educators, and the general public.