NSF INCLUDES Planning Grant:Transcending Barriers for Success

这项NSF INCLUDES规划拨款由美国国家科学基金会全国工程和科学领域未被充分代表的发现者学习者社区（NSF INCLUDES）资助，这是一项全面的国家倡议，旨在通过关注多样性、包容性和扩大STEM的大规模参与来增强美国在发现和创新方面的领导地位。这项计划拨款的目标是制定一个战略计划，建立一个协作基础设施，以解决美国原住民、阿拉斯加原住民、夏威夷原住民和太平洋原住民（NAAN-NHPI）学生参与的挑战。最近的研究估计，完成STEM专业学位的学生比例仍然很低。对于来自少数群体的STEM学生来说，识别STEM课程与学生的个人和文化价值观、公共利益、利他目标（例如社会和环境正义问题）以及多样化的文化视角之间的关系，可以培养与STEM坚持相关的动机和科学身份。重要的是，将本土知识与西方知识系统结合起来，作为课程和课外项目和支持的基础，可以提高STEM的成功程度，特别是对NAAN-NHPI学生而言。该项目通过地方/机构、地方/多机构和区域节点为节点网络提供规划基础。需要这种大规模的规划网络，以确保NAAN-NHPI社区的系统、持久参与，从而发展更加多样化的劳动力，以确保我们具有竞争力和繁荣的国家未来。该规划项目主要关注共同愿景的要素，并包括与协作基础设施的其他四个要素相关的具体结果。这一规划过程的主要成果是制定一项战略计划，以发展具有共同议程的网络，该议程阐明了在基于地点的框架内对参与挑战的集体理解。该战略计划包括确定和列出主要网络合作伙伴，以及描述SENCER（新公民参与和责任的科学教育）和国家科学与公民参与中心如何提供“骨干”或支持组织来帮助协调和促进网络。团队的战略规划方法采用了四个对话元素：1)谈话圈，2)倾听圈，3)召集，4)以“4”（四个方向、季节、日常阶段、生活阶段的神圣数字）为基础的聚会。所有的计划都是虚拟的，有文化基础的沟通策略。该项目由四所大学（洪堡州立大学、犹他大学、德克萨斯女子大学和阿肯色大学）和经验丰富的指导社区（夏威夷大学、Salish Kootenai部落联盟和阿拉斯加土著社区）共同支持，并得到两年制和四年制大学的资助。包括加州州立大学系统在内的50多所院校将在阿拉斯加州、阿肯色州、加利福尼亚州、夏威夷州、爱达荷州、密西西比州、蒙大拿州、新墨西哥州、俄克拉荷马州、德克萨斯州和犹他州开展工作。包括网络联盟和项目代表将被邀请参加会议和聚会。该项目通过重点支持NAAN-NHPI学生，扩大了当前INCLUDES项目组合的范围。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。

This NSF INCLUDES planning grant is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in STEM at scale. The goal of this planning grant is to produce a strategic plan for building a collaborative infrastructure to address participation challenges for Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Native Pacific Islander (NAAN-NHPI) students. Recent studies estimate that the percentage of students that complete a degree in a STEM major remains low. For STEM students from minoritized groups, the identification of relationships between STEM curriculum and students’ personal and cultural values, communal benefits, altruistic goals (e.g. social and environmental justice issues), and diverse cultural perspectives, cultivate the motivation and scientific identity linked to STEM persistence. Importantly, connecting Indigenous knowledges with western knowledge systems as the basis for transforming curricular and co-curricular programs and supports can improve STEM success, particularly for NAAN-NHPI students. The project provides the planning groundwork for a nodal network through local/institutional, local/multi-institutional, and regional nodes. This large-scale planning network is needed to ensure systemic, durable engagement of the NAAN-NHPI community and, thereby, develop a more diverse workforce to ensure our competitive and prosperous national future. This planning project focuses primarily on the element of shared vision and includes specific outcomes related to the four other elements of the collaborative infrastructure. The main product of this planning process is a strategic plan for developing the network with a common agenda that articulates a collective understanding of the participation challenge within a place-based framework. The strategic plan includes the identification and listing of primary network partners as well as a description of how SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) and the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement provide the “backbone” or support organization to help coordinate and facilitate the network. The team's strategic planning approach employs four dialogic elements 1) talking circles, 2) listening circles, 3) convenings, and 4) gatherings with “4” (a sacred number of four directions, seasons, daily stages, life stages) as a basis. All planning is virtual with culturally-grounded communication strategies. The project is anchored with four institutions (Humboldt State University, University of Utah, Texas Woman’s University, and University of Arkansas) and experienced guiding communities (University of Hawai‘i, the Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes, and Alaskan Native communities) with contributions from both two- and four-year institutions. Over 50 institutions, including the California State University system, will be engaged in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah. INCLUDES Network Alliances and projects representatives will be invited to participate in the convenings and gatherings. This project expands the scope of the current INCLUDES portfolio by focused support for NAAN-NHPI students.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.