Catalyzing Research in Geographies of Broadening Participation

当学生们考虑高等教育时，他们经常会问：“我应该去哪里上大学？”与此同时，院系会问：“我们在哪里可以找到更多元化的教师/学生群体？”这些问题揭示了高等教育参与的本质从根本上是空间和地理的。对于代表性不足的群体，研究表明，离家近和地方特征对这些决定的影响甚至更大。大学在哪里，未来未被充分代表的学生或教师来自哪里，以及地理环境的复杂动态影响着未被充分代表的群体的不均衡和低参与度。这些潜在的现象可以通过地理研究和专注于空间和地点概念的强大学科传统来更好地理解。然而，扩大高等教育参与的主要概念方法仍然是在教育机构之间建立“管道”关系，为不同阶段的学生服务——从小学、中学、中学、社区学院、本科到研究生水平。然而，这种线性比喻忽略了这样的关系实际上发生在真实的地方和跨越空间的距离。作为一门智力多样化的学科，涵盖了从地理科学到批判地理学等诸多传统，地理学在为广泛定义的代表性不足的人群（包括种族/少数民族、妇女、残疾人、经济和社会弱势群体或边缘化人群）提供高等教育获得和成功的变革性见解方面处于有利地位。以美国国家科学基金会创建扩大参与科学（SBP）的倡议为导向。在这个项目中，16名经过竞争选拔的研究人员，包括具有先进专业知识的资深学者和具有领导潜力并与代表性不足的社区有密切联系的早期职业学者，将聚集在一起进行为期3天的创造性学术静修。一个集中于地理学在定义和发展SBP方面的不同知识贡献的集体研究议程将激发新的研究重点、跨学科合作、资助策略和创新方向。该计划将支持小额赠款和一段研究和写作期，以进一步发展为退修会发起的贡献并探索新的问题。手稿随后将被收集成学术出版物，通过广泛的AAG场所和地理和空间科学网络、参与NSF SBP计划的学者社区以及其他学科网络传播。该项目将通过探索“拓宽参与地理学”的空间特征、基于地点的现象、地理动态和其他地理概念，促进地理和空间科学界为新兴的SBP贡献复杂的学科视角。该计划的设计包括一个独特的、结构化的专业发展框架，在这个框架中，高级和早期的职业学者可以合作。它提供了一个机会，可以更好地将地理学和空间科学的宝贵观点与许多其他学科结合起来，这些学科正在推动发展SBP的创新和相关性，从而提高理解，从而指导部门、大学、协会和其他教育和科学机构的行动，以增强高等教育的多样性和包容性。这项研究可能会促进对扩大女性和代表性不足的少数民族参与STEM及其他领域相关因素的科学理解。它得到支助，以促进与扩大参与科学有关的研究。该项目由地理与空间科学项目支持，是美国国家科学基金会拓宽参与科学计划的一部分。

When students consider higher education, they often ask "Where should I go to college?" Meanwhile departments ask "Where do we find a more diverse faculty/student body?" These questions reveal how the nature of participation in higher education is fundamentally spatial and geographic. For underrepresented groups, research shows proximity to home and characteristics of place to have an even more significant impact on such decisions. Where universities are, where prospective underrepresented students or faculty are coming from, and the complex dynamics of geographic context influence the uneven and low participation of underrepresented groups. These underlying phenomena could be better understood through the lens of geographic research and strong disciplinary traditions focused on concepts of space and place. Yet, the predominant conceptual approach to broadening participation in higher education continues to be one of building "pipeline" relationships among educational institutions serving students at different stages -- from grade school, middle school, secondary, community colleges, undergraduate to graduate levels. However, this linear metaphor overlooks that such relationships actually occur in real places and at distances across space. As an intellectually diverse discipline encompassing traditions from GIScience to critical geographies and much more, geography is well positioned to contribute transformative insights about access and success in higher education for broadly defined underrepresented populations, including racial/ethnic minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and economically and socially disadvantaged or marginalized populations, oriented to the NSF's initiative to create a Science of Broadening Participation (SBP). In this project, 16 competitively-selected researchers, including senior scholars with advanced expertise and early career scholars with leadership potential and strong ties to underrepresented communities, will gather for a 3-day creative scholarly retreat. A collective research agenda focused on geography's diverse intellectual contributions to defining and developing SBP will inspire new research priorities, interdisciplinary collaborations, funding strategies, and innovative directions. The program will support small grants and a research and writing period to further develop contributions initiated for the retreat and explore new questions. Manuscripts will later be collected into a scholarly publication to be disseminated through extensive AAG venues and networks within geography and spatial sciences, the community of scholars engaged in the NSF's SBP initiative, and to other disciplinary networks. This project will catalyze the geography and spatial science community to contribute a sophisticated disciplinary perspective to an emerging SBP by exploring spatial characteristics, place-based phenomena, geographic dynamics, and other geographical concepts for "Geographies of Broadening Participation". The design of the program includes a unique, structured professional development framework in which senior and early-career scholars collaborate. It presents the opportunity to better engage the valuable perspective of geography and the spatial sciences among many other disciplines that are driving innovation and relevance in developing a SBP, leading to improved understanding that can guide actions by departments, universities, associations, and other educational and scientific agencies to enhance the state of diversity and inclusion within higher education. The research can potentially advance scientific understanding of the factors associated with broadening the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM and beyond. It received support to stimulate research related to the Science of Broadening Participation. This project was supported by the Geography and Spatial Sciences Program as part of the NSF Science of Broadening Participation inititiave.