Akeakamai: Indigenous Explorations in Community-Based Science Learning

作为加强非正式环境中学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划旨在推进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括提供多种途径，扩大STEM学习经验的获取和参与，推进非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及发展参与者对更深层次学习的理解。这项名为akakamai（夏威夷语，字面意思是智慧爱好者、科学家、学者）的试点研究将探索当代西方科学主题与夏威夷本土文化科学经验的融合，以此作为加强STEM认知、跨文化科学合作和多代社区参与STEM的机制。这项工作的基础是，在当地非正式土著社区环境下的STEM学习应该具有文化响应性和文化可持续性，并且应该优先考虑土著认识论。如果成功，该试点的结果可以为在夏威夷原住民和太平洋岛民之间以及整个太平洋地区发展和实施文化上一致和可持续的多代STEM参与的有效方法提供有价值的见解。在两年的时间里，这项研究将解决三个研究问题。(1)将文化纳入非正式文化科学探索课程，在多大程度上减轻了参与科学的感知障碍？(2)社区成员认为限制他们参与科学的障碍是什么？(3)夏威夷原住民和西方科学的知识和学习方法在哪些方面是一致的？大约200名主要是夏威夷原住民和太平洋岛民，年龄从8岁到85岁不等，将参加这个试点项目。研究小组将在社会干预的各个阶段收集参与者的数据，这是一套在夏威夷土著社区合作空间Halau Inana举行的文化科学探索体验。干预将采用响应夏威夷文化规范的教学方法，提供整合西方科学技术和土著知识的内容，并结合夏威夷语言。还将进行严格的外部评价。研究和评价的结果将广泛传播。最终，该项目旨在为夏威夷社区科学学习开发一个概念性和实践性的跨文化、多代人框架，该框架可以作为未来研究和项目的模型，将其扩展到太平洋地区的土著社区内外。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understanding of deeper learning by participants. This pilot study, Akeakamai (Hawaiian, literally lover of wisdom, scientist, scholar), will explore the convergence of contemporary Western science topics with indigenous Hawaiian culture-based science experiences as a mechanism to strengthen STEM perceptions, cross-cultural science collaboration, and multi-generational community engagement with STEM. The work is grounded in the notion that STEM learning within the context of local informal indigenous community settings should be culturally responsive and culturally sustaining, and should privilege indigenous epistemologies. If successful, the results of this pilot could provide valuable insights on effective approaches to developing and implementing culturally consistent and sustainable multigenerational STEM engagement among Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, and across the Pacific region.Over a two-year duration, the study will address three research questions. (1) To what extent does inclusion of culture into curriculum designed for informal Culture-Science Explorations mitigate perceived barriers to participation in science? (2) What barriers do community members perceive to limit their participation in science? (3) What are the areas of consonance between Native Hawaiian and Western scientific approaches to knowledge and learning? Approximately 200 predominantly Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders, ranging in age from 8 - 85 years old, will participate in the pilot. The research team will collect participant data during all phases of the social intervention, a suite of culture-science exploration experiences held at the Halau Inana, a Native Hawaiian community collaboration space. The intervention will employ pedagogical methods that are responsive to Hawaiian cultural norms to deliver content that integrates across the interfaces of Western science and technology and indigenous knowledge, and incorporates Hawaiian language. A rigorous external evaluation will also be conducted. The results of the research and evaluation will be broadly disseminated. Ultimately, the project aims to develop a conceptual and practical cross-cultural, multi-generational framework for community-based science learning in Hawai'i that can serve as a model for future research and programs that extend into and beyond indigenous communities of the Pacific region.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.