Collaborative Research: EAGER: Using allies to expand your network: Implementing a psychological methodology to attract and retain underrepresented (UR) students in geoscience

地球科学在多样性方面仍然存在一个基本问题：少数民族和残疾人的代表性严重不足。这可以追溯到代表不足的(UR)种族学者面临的各种障碍，包括：HBCU和主要为拉美裔服务的机构缺乏地学专业，缺乏对大自然的经验和时间(例如，美国国家公园3%的游客是黑人和西班牙裔)，以及对职业前景持负面态度。对于残疾人来说，主要的挑战是无障碍和提供适当的住所。由于这些认知和障碍，我们的个人可能会自行选择不参与地球科学项目。这个项目将检验这样一种观点，即盟友或具有主导社会身份的成员最适合对这些统计数据产生积极影响。学术联盟，无论是教师还是研究生助教，对他们的学生的学术投入有巨大的影响，并可以作为改善UR学生未来发展轨迹的关键。PIS将培训个人有效的联谊行为，并激励他们将UR学生招募到他们的学术实地考察中。PIS计划以从事实地研究和教育的盟友为目标，因为地球科学是一个独特的STEM领域，因为许多数据收集和技能发展都是在世界各地的自然环境中进行的。PIS建议为UR学生测试一种克服这方面障碍的策略，因为实地环境中的积极(或消极)经历对招募和保留有深远影响。该项目将促进对大约80名学术盟友的培训和评估，并衡量培训对盟友以及数百名多数和UR学生的影响。人们的期望是，培训将产生次要的效果：学术联盟为所有学生和教职员工网络树立有效行为的榜样，创造一种“培训培训者”的连锁反应。PIS将使用学术实地考察作为衡量工具，包括多源评级，将通常在绩效评估中收集的360度类型评级应用于这一设置。交付成果包括对联谊计划及其对联谊相关态度和行为的改善及其对UR学生成绩的影响的试验性、纵向(随时间)和多源分析。这些结果将为关于所实施战略的有效性的研究工作提供信息，材料和程序将开放源代码，以最大限度地可复制。顶石会议将被用来向所有参与的盟友和UR学生传播发现，告知改善UR群体在地球科学中的吸引力和留存的方法，并扩大UR网络。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。

Geoscience maintains a base-rate problem with respect to diversity: ethnic minorities and people with disabilities are highly underrepresented. This has been traced to a variety of barriers for underrepresented (UR) ethnic scholars including: a lack of geoscience majors at HBCUs and primarily Hispanic-serving institutions, a lack of experience with, and time spent in, nature (e.g., 3% of visitors to U.S. national parks are Black and Hispanic), and negative attitudes about career prospects. For people with disabilities, the main challenge is accessibility and the provision of appropriate accommodations. UR individuals may self-select out of geoscience programs due to these perceptions and barriers. This project will test the idea that allies, or members of dominant social identities, are best situated to positively influence these statistics. Academic allies, whether faculty or graduate student teaching assistants, have tremendous impact on their students’ academic engagement and can serve as linchpins for improving the future trajectories of UR students. PIs will train individuals in effective allyship behaviors, and incentivize them to recruit UR students into their academic field trips. The PIs plan to target allies who engage in field research and education, as geoscience is a unique STEM field insofar as much of the data collection and skill development are practiced out in nature at locations around the world. The PIs propose testing a strategy to overcome barriers in this context for UR students, as positive (or negative) experiences in field settings have profound impacts on recruitment and retention.This project will facilitate training and assessment of approximately 80 academic allies and measure the effect of that training on allies as well as hundreds of majority and UR students. The expectation is that the training will produce a secondary effect: academic allies role model effective behaviors to all of their students and faculty networks, creating a “train-the-trainer” ripple effect. The PIs will use academic field trips as a vehicle for measurement, including multisource ratings, applying 360-degree-type ratings typically collected in performance appraisals to this setting. Deliverables include an experimental, longitudinal (over time), and multisource analysis of the allyship program and its improvement of allyship-related attitudes and behaviors, as well as its impact on the performance of UR students. These results will inform research efforts regarding the effectiveness of implemented strategies, and the materials and procedure will be made open-source for maximum replicability. A capstone conference will be used to disseminate findings to all participating allies and UR students, inform about methodologies that improve attraction and retention of UR groups in the geosciences, and expand UR networks.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.