CAREER: Advancing Equity in Middle School Mathematics by Engaging Students and Families of Color in Participatory Design Research

全国各地的学校和地区都在努力解决种族不平等问题，但在学习机会、成果和经验方面仍然存在巨大差距。此外，那些谁承担最沉重的种族不公正的负担，即有色人种的学生和他们的家庭，很少有意义地包括在概念化和实施面向公平的举措。政策制定者和管理者经常把课程和教学改革视为应该为这些学生和家庭做的事情，而不是与他们一起做或由他们做。拟议的项目旨在调查的可能性和使用参与式的方法来研究和设计的挑战，集中黑人，土著，拉丁裔和苗族学生及其家庭在想象和创造变化。这种方法有可能破坏数学教育的不公平做法以及数学教育决策的不民主过程。此外，它还将促进在数学教育中发展种族公正的做法和过程。该职业奖由Discovery Research preK-12计划（DRK-12）资助，该计划旨在通过研究和开发创新资源，模型和工具，显着提高preK-12学生和教师的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，这些研究和开发工作为拟议项目提供了理论和经验依据。该项目还得到了STEM教育计划中种族平等的支持（EHR Racial Equity）该项目支持通过研究和实践促进STEM教育和劳动力发展中的种族平等的项目。该项目将产生有关参与式设计研究（PDR）的可能性和局限性的新知识作为一种方法，在该项目的五年时间里，通过在三所中学进行PDR周期，促进数学教育的公平。这些周期包括参与数学活动的有色人种家庭，分享他们的经验，收集与他们的经验密切相关的数据，并提出建议，以创造更公平的做法和政策，在数学教育。因此，PDR周期提供了比传统研究方法更民主和平等的理解和解决社会问题的手段。教育活动的高潮，从这项研究，包括研究生课程的发展有关的PDR。该项目还将提供开创性的证据，证明家庭，教育工作者和学校领导如何使用PDR来改变权力动态，并通过集中有色人种学生及其家庭的声音和知识来系统地改变数学教育。它将增加关于有色人种学生及其家庭如何理解数学教育中种族平等和正义的少量文献。他们的观点是至关重要的通知公平和正义为导向的研究和实践。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

Schools and districts around the country seek to address racial inequities, yet vast disparities in learning opportunities, outcomes, and experiences persist. Furthermore, those who bear the heaviest burdens of racial injustice—namely, students of color and their families—are rarely meaningfully included in conceptualizing and implementing equity-oriented initiatives. Policymakers and administrators have often treated curricular and pedagogical change as something that should be done to or for these students and families, not with or by them. The proposed project seeks to investigate the possibilities and challenges of using a participatory approach to research and design, centering Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Hmong students and their families in imagining and creating change. This approach has the potential to disrupt inequitable practices of mathematics education as well as undemocratic processes for making decisions about mathematics education. Further, it will be a catalyst for developing racially just practices and processes in mathematics education. This CAREER award is funded by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12), which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models, and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. This project is also supported by the Racial Equity in STEM Education program (EHR Racial Equity), which supports projects that advance racial equity in STEM education and workforce development through research and practice.This project will generate new knowledge about the possibilities and limitations of participatory design research (PDR) as a method for advancing equity in mathematics education through PDR cycles at three middle schools over the five years of the project. These cycles include families of color participating in mathematical activity, sharing their experiences, collecting data germane to their experiences, and making recommendations to create more equitable practices and policies in mathematics education. Thus, PDR cycles provide a more democratic and egalitarian means of understanding and addressing social problems than traditional research methods. Educational activities culminating from this research include the development of graduate-level curriculum related to PDR. This project will also contribute groundbreaking evidence of how families, educators, and school leaders can use PDR to shift power dynamics and make systemic change in mathematics education by centering the voices and knowledge of students of color and their families. It will add to the small body of literature regarding how students of color and their families understand racial equity and justice in mathematics education. Their perspectives are essential to inform equity- and justice-oriented research and practice.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.