An Investigator Development Plan for Building Capacity to Explore Diverse Microcultures in Graduate Engineering Research Laboratories

该提案将重点放在基础STEM教育研究上，该研究旨在研究工程类研究生项目中扩大参与和STEM劳动力培训的问题。这项研究将有助于扩大目前对STEM研究实验室(微文化)的特点和功能的了解，这些实验室可能会影响代表性不足的研究生的成功。首席调查员设计了一项专业发展计划，以支持工程教育研究领域的个人能力建设。为了实现了解支持代表性不足群体学生的最佳做法的目标，调查员的专业计划侧重于增加她在人种学研究方法方面的经验和在定性研究方面的培训。专业发展计划包括一个由顾问和顾问组成的指导团队，以及将提供定性研究方法准备的活动。专业发展计划的结果将是提高研究人员完成拟议研究项目的能力，并建立专门知识，为工程教育研究知识库做出贡献。研究将应用人种学或自我人种学方法来收集研究生在高影响力研究实验室的经验证据，并检查有助于形成有凝聚力的研究团队和支持性环境的因素。这项研究将调查作为不同STEM研究实验室成员的研究生的特征、行为和最佳实践。将使用人种学方法，使用一个侧重于调查实践和社会化社区的概念框架，在研究实验室中对研究生的经历进行研究。预期的影响包括提供最佳做法，为代表性不足的学生提供多样化和包容性的环境。这项研究的长期轨迹是在研究生教育中扩大对微观文化的理解，以支持扩大STEM劳动力参与的目标。该项目的预期成果包括培养个人从事基础STEM教育研究项目的能力，这些项目可以促进当前关于扩大参与和STEM劳动力发展的知识。该项目由EHR核心研究：建设STEM教育研究能力(ECR：BCSER)竞赛支持，该竞赛旨在培养个人在STEM学习和学习环境中开展高质量基础STEM教育研究的能力，扩大对STEM领域的参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The proposal focuses on fundamental STEM education research that examines broadening participation and STEM workforce training in engineering graduate programs. The research will contribute to expanding the current understanding of the characteristics and functioning of STEM research labs (microcultures) that may impact the success of underrepresented graduate students. The Principal Investigator has designed a professional development plan that will support individual capacity building in the field of engineering education research. To achieve the goal of understanding the best practices in supporting students from underrepresented groups, the investigator's professional plan focuses on increasing her experience with ethnographic research methodology and training in qualitative research. The professional development plan includes a mentoring team of advisors and consultants and activities that will provide preparation in qualitative research methods. The outcome of the professional development plan will be to increase the investigator's capacity to complete the proposed research project and build expertise to contribute to the engineering education research knowledge base.The research will apply ethnographic or autoethnographic methods to collect evidence of graduate student experiences in high impact research labs and to examine the factors that contribute to the formation of a cohesive research team and supportive environment. The study will investigate the features, behavior and best practices connected with the experiences of graduate students who are members of diverse STEM research labs. A conceptual framework focused on investigating communities of practice and socialization, using ethnographic methods, will be applied to conduct research on graduate student experiences in research labs. The expected impact includes informing best practices that can provide diverse and inclusive settings for underrepresented students. The long-term trajectory of the research is to expand the understanding of micro-cultures in graduate education to support the goal of broadening participation in the STEM workforce. An expected outcome of this project includes building capacity of the individual PI to pursue fundamental STEM education research projects that can advance current knowledge about broadening participating and STEM workforce development.The project is supported through the EHR Core Research: Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) competition that is designed to build individuals' capacity to carry out high quality fundamental STEM education research in STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development.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.