(RDE-BPR1) Veterans in STEM: Critical Analysis of the Factors Affecting Pathways to STEM Careers for Veterans Experiencing Disabilities

这项名为“STEM退伍军人：影响残疾退伍军人STEM职业道路的关键因素分析”的研究是根据美国国家科学基金会的残疾教育研究（RDE）项目招标（NSF 12-542）进行的，该项目旨在扩大STEM教育一级（RDE- bpr1）的参与研究。RDE-BPR1轨道的目标是基础学习和教育研究、早期研究以及设计和开发研究。RDE-BPR1项目加强了对影响STEM教育中残疾高等教育学生差异学习、参与、坚持和毕业率的基本潜在问题的理解。本研究的重点是扩大因战斗创伤经历而获得残疾的退伍军人对STEM的参与。由于战斗创伤的经历，退伍军人经常经历一系列与创伤后应激和创伤性脑损伤相关的挑战，如学习、记忆、感觉或沟通方面的挑战。本研究的目标人群是经历这些挑战的退伍军人和退伍军人学生，这些挑战在从军队到平民生活的过渡中往往是“看不见的”或未被认识到的。该项目的目标是调查影响残疾退伍军人攻读STEM本科学位的学习、参与、坚持和毕业的关键因素。该提案针对一个主要的研究问题：有隐形残疾的退伍军人报告说，影响他们决定注册和坚持STEM高等教育本科课程的关键因素是什么？本研究旨在透过社会生态学的框架，探讨退伍军人的特定变量。使用模糊认知映射（FCM），一种应用模糊集理论使因果认知图可计算的方法，来自受试者的数据将提供影响残疾退伍军人在STEM中成功的多个维度（例如，特征，时间和强度）的清晰图像。相互依赖关系以及直接和间接影响的测量将由受试者计算、显示和验证。数据收集涉及对包括(a)在STEM中有残疾的退伍军人和(b)在兵役和大学之间过渡的退伍军人的访谈。数据正在从全国人口的研究对象中抽样。在面试过程中，因果认知图被创建，识别变量之间的关系被赋予可量化的方向和权重。在最后阶段，将地图定性地和定量地结合起来，形成影响变量之间直接和间接关系的网络。该项目包括一项独立的外部评估，计划将研究结果和发现传播给广泛的研究受众和公众，并计划在未来的研究中将主题池扩大到残疾退伍军人之外，这些研究将解决残疾退伍军人学生在STEM中或对STEM感兴趣时所处的环境变量。

This research study "Veterans in STEM: Critical Analysis of the Factors Affecting Pathways to STEM Careers for Veterans Experiencing Disabilities" is being conducted in response to the NSF's Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) program solicitation (NSF 12-542) for the RDE-Broadening Participation Research in STEM Education Level 1 (RDE-BPR1) track. The RDE-BPR1 track targets fundamental learning and educational research, early-stage studies, and design and development research. RDE-BPR1 projects enhance the understanding of the basic underlying issues affecting differential learning, participation, persistence and graduation rates of postsecondary students with disabilities in STEM education. This study focuses on broadening participation in STEM of veterans challenged by disabilities acquired due to experiences of combat trauma. Due to experiences of combat trauma, veterans often experience an array of challenges associated with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury such as learning, memory, sensory, or communication challenges. The target population of this study is veterans and student veterans experiencing these challenges, which are often "invisible" or unrecognized during the transition from military to civilian life. The goal of the proposed project is to investigate the critical factors impacting learning, participation, persistence, and graduation for veterans with disabilities pursuing undergraduate STEM degrees. The proposal targets one primary research question: What are the critical factors reported by veterans with invisible disabilities influencing their decisions to enroll and persist in STEM post-secondary undergraduate programs? Through a social ecological framework, this study is designed to investigate veteran-specific variables. Using fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM), a methodology that applies fuzzy set theory making causal cognitive maps computable, the data from the subjects will provide a clear image of the multiple dimensions (e.g., characteristics, timing, and intensity) influencing veterans with disabilities succeeding in STEM. The interdependencies, as well as measures of direct and indirect effects will be computable, displayed, and validated by the subjects. Data collection involves interviews with subjects who include (a) veterans with disabilities in STEM, and (b) veterans transitioning between military service and college. Data is being sampled from a national population of subjects. In the interview process, causal cognitive maps are being created and relationships between identified variables are given quantifiable direction and weight. In the final phase, the maps are integrated qualitatively and quantitatively to result in a network of the direct and indirect relationships between influencing variables. This project includes an independent and external evaluation, plans to disseminate the results and findings from the study to a broad research audience and the public, and a plan to expand the subject pool beyond veterans with disabilities in future studies that will address contextual variables in which student veterans with disabilities in, and interested in STEM, operate.