Transforming STEM Career Pathways: Examining a Multigenerational Mentorship Environment to Support Persistence of Women of Color Pursuing STEM Education at Community Colleges

该项目旨在通过增加在两年制机构中追求STEM教育的有色人种（黑人/非裔美国人，拉丁裔，亚裔美国人和土著妇女）的成功来服务于国家利益。妇女在许多STEM领域以及进入这些领域的教育途径中的代表性仍然严重不足。 造成这种情况的原因是基于性别的经历导致了被忽视和孤立的感觉。对于那些拥有其他边缘化身份，如社会阶层、公民身份、年龄和种族的妇女来说，这种经历往往更为严重。然而，大多数旨在扩大STEM参与的努力都试图通过针对单一的边缘化身份来提高学生的持久性。研究人员指出，建立一个基于种族和性别的双重社会网络对提高学生的成功率至关重要。由于COVID-19大流行对有色人种妇女的影响，跨部门方法的重要性甚至更大。除了以在线形式管理自己的教育外，许多有色人种妇女在大流行期间还承担着维持家庭健康和生存的主要责任。 这些努力往往需要管理食品，金融和住房不安全，同时导航复杂，脱节的支持系统。推进有色人种女性的STEM参与需要创造空间，全面支持其交叉身份的复杂相互作用。在这些“反空间”中，有色人种女性可以发展基于资产的叙事以及在学术和心理上蓬勃发展所需的心态和技能。该项目将研究一个具有文化响应性的反空间的有效性，该空间具有多代导师制，并专注于福祉和繁荣。 预计这一反空间将促进有色人种女性在追求STEM教育方面的坚持。该项目将评估一项旨在解决有色人种女性在追求STEM职业生涯中所经历的心理和情感挑战的计划的有效性。项目目标包括将反空间和多代指导模式应用于社区学院的有色人种女性，并了解明确关注STEM身份发展和心理社会健康可能会影响社区学院有色人种女性的STEM持续性的方式。为了实现这些目标，项目团队将进行多方法研究和程序评估，包括过程和结果评估组件。这项研究将增加对counterspaces的理解，包括counterspaces的具体特征，这些特征支持社区学院有色人种女性的STEM身份发展。该研究旨在确定采用多代导师的活动可以促进社区学院有色人种女性的归属感，紧急STEM身份和STEM持久性的方式。这项研究将扩大了解的因素，告知黑人/非裔美国人，拉丁裔，亚裔美国人和土著妇女在社区学院谁完成两年的计划，进入干劳动力或转移到一个为期四年的干程序，或不坚持干的决策过程。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。该奖项反映了NSF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 project aims to serve the national interest by increasing the success of women of color (Black/African American, Latina, Asian American, and Indigenous women) who are pursuing STEM education at two-year institutions. Women remain significantly underrepresented in many STEM fields and in the educational pathways that lead into those fields. This situation has been attributed to gender-based experiences that result in feelings of invisibility and isolation. Such experiences tend to be exacerbated for women who hold other marginalized identities, such as social class, citizenship, age, and race. Yet, most efforts designed to broaden STEM participation try to advance student persistence by targeting singular marginalized identities. Researchers have cited the importance of developing a dual race- and gender-based social network to increase student success. The importance of an intersectional approach is even greater because of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts on women of color. In addition to managing their own education in an online format, many women of color have major responsibilities in maintaining their families' health and survival during the pandemic. These efforts often require managing food, financial, and housing insecurity while navigating complex, disjointed support systems. Advancing STEM participation of women of color requires the creation of spaces that holistically support the complex interplay of their intersecting identities. In these “counterspaces,” women of color can develop asset-based narratives and the mindset and skills needed to thrive academically and psychologically. This project will examine the effectiveness of a culturally responsive counterspace that features multigenerational mentorship and is focused on wellbeing and thriving. It is expected that this counterspace will promote the persistence of women of color in their pursuit of STEM education.The project will evaluate the effectiveness of a program designed to address the psychological and emotional challenges that women of color experience in pursuing STEM careers. Project goals include include applying the model of counterspaces and multigenerational mentoring to women of color in community college and understanding the ways in which an explicit focus on STEM identity development and psychosocial wellbeing may affect STEM persistence among women of color at community colleges. To achieve these goals, the project team will conduct a multi-methodological research study and a program evaluation comprised of both process and outcome evaluation components. This study will add to the understanding of counterspaces, including the specific features of counterspaces that support STEM identity development of women of color at community colleges. The study expects to identify the ways in which activities that employ multigenerational mentorship can promote feelings of belonging, emergent STEM identities, and STEM persistence of women of color at the community college. The research will expand understanding of the factors that inform the decision-making processes of Black/African American, Latina, Asian American, and Indigenous women in community colleges who complete a two-year program and enter the STEM workforce or transfer into a four-year STEM program, or do not persist in STEM. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.