Measuring the Social Networks and Community Cultural Wealth of Latina/o STEM Undergraduates

该项目是威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的社会科学家和德克萨斯大学系统路易斯斯托克斯少数民族参与联盟（LSAMP）内的科学家之间的合作，旨在了解拉丁裔学生为他们的科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）教育和职业带来的资产。尽管拉丁裔本科生计划以相当于或超过其他种族/族裔同龄人的速度进入STEM，但他们在STEM劳动力和STEM学位获得者中的代表性不足。基于缺陷的研究强调拉丁裔学生缺乏什么来调查这些差异，与之相反，本研究侧重于拉丁裔学生为他们的教育和职业带来的社区文化资源。通过绘制拉丁裔学生的社交网络，测量他们的社区文化财富（CCW），记录他们在STEM研究方面的经历，并跟踪他们从大三到大四，然后进入劳动力市场或进入STEM研究生课程的职业身份变化，该项目将推进八所LSAMP机构将本科STEM教育的支持结构制度化的方式。项目团队将在三年的时间里，每年秋季记录一组拉丁裔/非拉丁裔学生的经历和关系，并将采用新的定量技术来评估他们在大学到职业过渡期间的CCW。纵向混合方法设计是最早将CCW与自我网络分析相结合的方法之一。这不仅扩展了STEM教育研究人员可用的认识论和方法，而且更广泛地说，可以为高等教育机构提供信息，因为他们正在开发基于CCW和社交网络的STEM编程，这对拉丁裔/非拉丁裔本科STEM教育至关重要。最后，该项目说明了西班牙裔服务机构（hsi）和新兴hsi可以拥有的机构和合作伙伴范围多样化的重要性，因为它们将继续见证拉丁裔学生追求高等教育的集体种族化经历。这个合作项目是通过STEM教育项目中的种族平等（EHR种族平等）资助的。该项目支持研究和实践项目，调查种族平等因素如何影响科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）教育和劳动力的改善。获奖项目旨在将STEM企业中受系统性不平等影响最大的个人、社区和机构的声音、知识和经验集中起来。该项目符合美国国家科学基金会的核心价值，即支持来自全国不同人口群体、地区和组织类型的杰出研究人员和创新思想家。EHR种族平等的资金来自EHR各个项目，以表彰其项目与董事会四个部门的集体研究和开发重点的一致性。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 project is a collaboration between social scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and scientists within the University of Texas System Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) aimed at understanding the assets Latinx students bring to their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and careers. Although Latinx undergraduates plan to enter STEM at rates equivalent to or exceeding those of their peers from other racial/ethnic groups, they are underrepresented in the STEM workforce and among degree recipients in STEM. As a counter to deficit-based studies that investigate these discrepancies by emphasizing what Latinx students lack, this study focuses on the community cultural resources Latinx students bring to their education and careers. By mapping Latinx students’ social networks, measuring their community cultural wealth (CCW), documenting their experiences with STEM research, and tracking changes in their professional identity as they move from their junior to senior year and then out into the work6force or into STEM graduate programs, this project will advance the ways eight LSAMP institutions can institutionalize supportive structures for undergraduate STEM education. The project team will document the experiences and relationships of a group of Latina/o students each fall over the course of 3 years, and will employ new quantitative techniques for assessing their CCW during their college-to-career transition. The longitudinal mixed method design is among the first to combine CCW with ego network analysis. This not only expands the epistemologies and methodologies available to STEM education researchers, but more broadly speaking, can inform institutions of higher education as they develop the CCW- and social network-based STEM programming that is critical to Latina/o undergraduate STEM education. Finally, this project illustrates the importance of diversifying the range of institutions and partnerships Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and emerging HSIs can have, given they will continue to bear witness to the collective racialized experiences of Latinx students pursuing their post-secondary education.This collaborative project is funded through the Racial Equity in STEM Education program (EHR Racial Equity). The program supports research and practice projects that investigate how considerations of racial equity factor into the improvement of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce. Awarded projects seek to center the voices, knowledge, and experiences of the individuals, communities, and institutions most impacted by systemic inequities within the STEM enterprise. This program aligns with NSF’s core value of supporting outstanding researchers and innovative thinkers from across the Nation's diversity of demographic groups, regions, and types of organizations. Funds for EHR Racial Equity are pooled from programs across EHR in recognition of the alignment of its projects with the collective research and development thrusts of the four divisions of the directorate.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.