Exploring the Foundations of Diversity: A Trans-Cultural Learning Lodge for National Science Foundation Program Directors

提案号：09-35936PI(s): von thatcher - braan, RoseInstitution: Silver Buffalo C. Pt. Richmond, CA 94801-0000 Title: SpProj。：探索多样性的基础：跨文化学习住宿项目建议：这是一个非常非传统的项目，针对相对集中的受众，旨在教学，培训和学习，在更大的学术环境中进行，特别是在美洲原住民（NA）社区。为了加强会议、论文和以讲座为基础的学习的更正式的方法，该项目打算在更个人的网络水平上加强对科学界的理解。将苏格拉底的方法与对话过程结合起来，应该鼓励人们重新关注人与人之间面对面的学习，而不是iPhone、Facebook、短信和当今世界更常用的基于互联网的工具。这项工作通过选定的研讨会，使结果能够更广泛地传播给更广泛的NA社区，甚至是大学社区和政府机构的不同群体。该提案称：“跨文化学习是严格的，主要是因为它需要暂停未经检验的假设，并揭示我们看待彼此的文化视角。”因此，这项工作构成了一项教育政策努力，提供了几次“会议”，重点关注科学、工程和教育政策和战略。“会议”的基本概念是印第安人的概念，使用论坛，小屋或广泛的讨论，在任何决定或异议被接受之前，讨论和听取主题领域的所有方面。由于这一概念在蒙古和中亚（例如阿富汗的jurga）等地使用，因此这一概念很可能起源于亚洲。这种会议的NA形式在项目中以“小屋”的形式表达。这项工作有可能让人们更广泛地理解一种更非正式的技术，这种技术在“印度国家”被称为“谈话圈”。就其本质而言，提议的会议是多样化的，对科学、工程和教育领域内的所有学科领域开放。将举办各种活动，邀请NSF人员和一些pi，并邀请当地科学家、学者、教育工作者和传统知识持有人参加，目的是让与会者接触当地的学习过程、文化和知识，从而开辟新的思维方式和其他文化，以不同的方式接近知识和生活。该项目鼓励科学努力的多样性，包括参与科学研究的人员和科学研究方法的多样性。这项工作使人们能够理解不同的知识来源，并产生“共同的观点”，从这些观点出发，激进的新方法可能会解决共同的目标。更广泛的影响：这个项目是为了更广泛的影响。在过去的三年里，美国工程教育协会（www.asee.org）一直专注于类似的“对话年”方法，在增加成员之间的非正式网络方面取得了出色的成果，并在公司成员委员会内建立了几个特殊兴趣小组（SIGs）。学习小屋通过多元化、K-12和终身学习论坛展示了同样的成功潜力。

Proposal #: 09-35936PI(s): von Thater-Braan, RoseInstitution: Silver Buffalo C. Pt. Richmond, CA 94801-0000 Title: SpProj.: Exploring the Foundations of Diversity: A Trans-Cultural Learning LodgeProject Proposed:This very non-traditional project for a relatively focused audience, aiming to teach, train, and learn, takes place across the larger academic environment, particularly within the Native American (NA) communities. To augment the more formal methodologies of conferences, papers, and lecture-based learning, the project intends to enhance understanding for the scientific community on a more personal network level. Using the Socratic method combined with the dialog processes should encourage a renewed focus on people-to-people, face-to-face learning beyond iPhone, Facebook, texting, and internet-based tools more commonly used in today's world. The work enables broader dissemination of results through selected workshops for the wider NA community, and even diverse groups across the university community and government agencies. The proposal states: 'Trans-cultural learning is rigorous primarily because it requires suspension of unexamined assumptions and reveals the cultural lens through which we view one another.' Thus, the work constitutes an educational policy effort, offering several 'convenings' focused on science, engineering, and educational policies and strategies. The basic concept of the 'convenings,' a Native American Concept, uses a forum, a lodge, or a wide-area discussion at which all aspects of the topic area are discussed and heard before any decisions or dissentions are admitted. Since this idea is used in places like Mongolia and Central Asia (e.g., the lawya jurga of Afghanistan), the concept may well be Asian in origin. The NA form of such meetings is couched in the form of 'lodges' in the project. The work has the potential for creating a broader understanding of a more informal technology known as 'talking circles' in 'Indian Country.' By its very nature, the proposed meetings are diverse and open to all subject areas within the umbrella of science, engineering, and education. Various events will be held to which NSF personnel and some PIs will be invited and at which Native scientists, scholars, educators, and traditional knowledge holders would attend with the purpose of exposing the attendees to the Native learning processes, culture, and knowledge, thus opening new ways of thinking and other cultures that approach knowledge and life in different ways. The project encourages diversity in science endeavors, both among the people involved in science and in the approaches to scientific research. The work enables understanding alternative sources of knowledge and generates 'shared perspectives from which radical new approaches may address commonly held goals.'Broader Impacts: This project is all about broader impact. In the past three years the American Society of Engineering Education (www.asee.org) has focused on a similar 'year of dialog' approach with excellent results in increased informal networking among the members and has established several Special Interest Groups (SIGs) within the Corporate Member Council. The Learning Lodge exhibits the same potential for success via outreach encompassing diversity, K-12, and life-long learning forums.