Advancing Refugee Youth's STEM and Social Capital Through Family-Focused Learning

该项目在亚利桑那州立大学与布隆迪-美洲人道与机会协会(BAAHO)的多所学校和中心之间建立了合作伙伴关系，以加强难民家庭在STEM学术和职业道路上的代表性。难民青年有时因其新兴的语言技能而被教育工作者忽视，但与其他青年一样，他们也有能力为STEM做出重要贡献。该项目通过以家庭为中心的模式，将布隆迪难民家庭与大学教师和本科生联系起来，承认并利用布隆迪成年难民的STEM知识和观点。有12-17岁孩子的家庭将参与以下活动：由学生和教职员工推动的“客厅外展活动”，与STEM专业人员见面和互动的机会，到多个大学校园实地考察了解大学生活和各种STEM途径，以及与其他家庭选择的非正式STEM学习经验。此外，年龄较大的儿童将参与一项创新的技术体验，通过学员和导师之间共享的基于电子的STEM抱负日志，促进STEM专业人员和青年之间的指导关系。该项目的核心是伙伴关系和互惠学习的机会，家长可以在分享专业知识的同时，更多地了解如何成为子女的有效倡导者；青年可以向本科生和实践专业的导师学习，本科生也可以向布隆迪青年学习；布隆迪领导人向教职员工和本科生讲授布隆迪的历史和文化，教职员工和本科生则分享他们在STEM职业道路上的经验。该项目通过以社会认知职业理论为框架的研究，增进对难民家庭STEM经历和愿望的了解。研究人员考察了每个项目活动对青年参与者的自我效能感、STEM认同感、结果期望和STEM兴趣的综合和具体影响，以支持他们的STEM目标。此外，研究人员旨在了解布隆迪难民家庭中的大学社会资本和STEM资本如何直接影响儿童的STEM愿望，并对其起到调节作用。在这项初步研究中，调查人员采取了混合方法的研究方法，其中定性方法使他们能够了解项目的不同方面如何影响青年参与者。在与布隆迪领导人的合作下，研究人员调整了文化有效性的调查工具，并管理调查，以获得与计划活动的影响相关的额外数据。该项目的贡献将包括：可供其他大学和/或其他难民社区使用的以家庭为重点的外联模式；通过共享电子日记促进远程辅导的方法；关于该模式的不同方面如何影响难民参与者的研究结果；以及经调整以用于难民人口的研究工具。该项目将为今后可能扩大其他难民人口(和其他社区)的规模奠定基础，该项目将根据该项目的调查结果，并得到国际救援委员会的进一步支持。该项目由学生和教师创新技术体验计划(ITEST)资助，该计划支持建立对实践、计划要素、背景和过程的理解的项目，这些项目有助于提高学生对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)以及信息和通信技术(ICT)职业的知识和兴趣。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。

This project creates partnerships among multiple schools and centers at Arizona State University with the Burundi-America Association for Humanity and Opportunities (BAAHO) to bolster representation of refugee families in STEM academic and career pathways. Refugee youth are sometimes overlooked by educators because of their emerging language skills, but like other youth they are capable of making important STEM contributions. This project recognizes and leverages the STEM knowledge and perspectives of Burundian refugee adults through a family-focused model that connects Burundian refugee families with university faculty and undergraduate students. Families with children ages 12-17 will participate in: “living room outreach events” facilitated by students and faculty, opportunities to meet and interact with STEM professionals, field trips to multiple university campuses to learn about college life and various STEM pathways, and informal STEM learning experiences of choice with other families. Additionally, older children will participate in an innovative technology experience that facilitates mentoring relationships between STEM professionals and the youth through an electronic-based STEM Aspiration journal shared between the mentee and mentor. At the core of the project are partnerships and opportunities for reciprocal learning, where parents are able to share their expertise while also learning more about how to be effective advocates for their children; youth are able to learn from undergraduate and practicing professional mentors, while undergraduates also learn from Burundian youth; and Burundian leaders teach faculty and undergraduates about Burundian history and culture while faculty and undergraduates share their experiences with navigating STEM career pathways. The project advances knowledge of refugee families’ STEM experiences and aspirations through research framed around social cognitive career theory. The investigators examine the composite and specific effects of each of the project activities on the youth participants’ self-efficacy, STEM identity, outcome expectations, and STEM interests, in support of their STEM goals. Additionally, the researchers aim to understand how college social capital and STEM capital among Burundian refugee families both directly impacts and acts as a moderator on children's STEM aspirations. In this pilot study, the investigators take a mixed-methods research approach, where qualitative methods allow them to understand how different aspects of the program impact the youth participants. In collaboration with Burundian leaders, the researchers adapt survey instruments for cultural validity, and administer the surveys for additional data related to the impact of the program activities. Contributions from this project will include: a family-focused outreach model that can be used by other universities and/or with other refugee communities, an approach to facilitating remote mentoring through shared electronic journaling, research findings related to how different aspects of the model impact refugee participants, and research instruments that have been adapted for use with refugee populations. The project will provide a foundation for possible future scale-up with other refugee populations (and in other communities), informed by the findings from this project and further supported by the International Rescue Committee. This project is funded by the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program, which supports projects that build understandings of practices, program elements, contexts, and processes contributing to increasing students' knowledge and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT) careers.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.