A Participatory Design Investigation of the Relationship between Program Setting and Science Identity Development

科学认同已被证明是学术成功和坚持科学发展轨迹的必要前提。此外，在很大程度上，科学身份的形成在很大程度上是由于(种族主义的)学习者进入科学空间的各种途径，无论是真实的还是感知的。对于黑人和拉丁裔青年来说，特别是在美国，将科学作为一门学科和一种文化的主流思想承认和支持某些学习者，并排斥其他学习者。如果不能形成能够从事科学的学习者的身份，或者能够成为未来的科学家，这些年轻人就不太可能在任何科学领域追求职业生涯。积极的科学身份与特定地区提供的物质和社会资源之间存在明显的联系。因此，年轻人能否将自己视为科学家，甚至是否觉得自己有机会接触科学实践，也取决于他们在哪里学习科学实践。该项目的总体目标是通过加深我们对科学特性的理解以及如何更好地设计科学学习空间来支持这些学习者积极的科学特性的发展，扩大黑人和拉丁裔青年对科学的参与。通过深化该领域关于科学学习空间如何塑造科学身份的知识，科学教育工作者可以设计更公平的学习空间，利用项目地点、与文化相关的课程和参与者的生活经验的空间方面。对积极的科学认同的更广泛的理解使教育工作者能够在黑人和拉丁裔学习者中认识到这些，并相应地指导他们继续从事科学活动，因为积极的认同会带来更大的科学毅力。这个项目是纽约大学的研究人员和纽约市非正式科学组织BioBus的研究人员共同完成的。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习计划(AISL)资助，该计划旨在促进对非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和开发的新方法和基于证据的理解。这一参与性设计研究项目将比较三种不同形式的中学生课后科学编程：一种位于附近大学校园的实验室空间，一种位于参与学生的公共中学大楼，另一种位于流动科学实验室。就本研究而言，“环境”的构思是指地理位置、建成的物理环境和物质资源的维度。环境不是静态的，而是社会性和关系性的：它是由个人在活动中动态(共同)构建和体验的，以及由个体群体在互动中体验的。因此，三种BioBus编程类型可以进行富有成效的比较，这不仅是因为它们的地理位置、建筑环境和物质资源(例如科学工具)不同，还因为学习者可能与这些地方存在现有关系，以及BioBus教学科学家在每种类型中使用的教学设计和教学实践。本研究采用以设计为基础的研究方法，回答以下研究问题：(1)科学学习情境如何塑造科学认同发展？从这些关系中可能出现的不同的积极科学身份是什么？以及(2)有什么方法可以利用非正式科学规划和教学的不同空间方面来支持积极的科学认同？这项研究使用民族志和微观分析方法来更好地理解环境和科学认同发展之间的关系，揭示我们的黑人和拉丁裔学生所具有的广泛类型的积极科学认同，并为非正式科学教育提供信息，以设计和利用编程和教学的空间方面。研究结果将有助于建立一个系统的知识库，将非正式科学教育的空间方面与科学认同和身份发展结合在一起，并为非正式科学教育工作者提供新的工具，包括将空间因素纳入计划和课程计划的设计原则。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Science identity has been shown to be a necessary precondition to academic success and persistence in science trajectories. Further, science identities are formed, in large part, due to the kinds of access, real or perceived, that (racialized) learners have to science spaces. For Black and Latinx youth, in particular, mainstream ideas of science as a discipline and as a culture in the US recognize and support certain learners and marginalize others. Without developing identities as learners who can do science, or can become future scientists, these young people are not likely to pursue careers in any scientific field. There are demonstrable links between positive science identities and the material and social resources provided by particular places. Thus, whether young people can see themselves as scientists, or even feel that they have access to science practices, also depends on where they are learning it. The overarching goal of this project is to broaden participation of Black and Latinx youth in science by deepening our understanding of both science identities and how science learning spaces may be better designed to support the development of positive science identities of these learners. By deepening the field’s knowledge of how science learning spaces shape science identities, science educators can design more equitable learning spaces that leverage the spatial aspects of program location, culturally relevant curriculum, and participants’ lived experiences. A more expansive understanding of positive science identities allows educators to recognize these in Black and Latinx learners, and direct their continued science engagements accordingly, as positive identities lead to greater persistence in science. This project is a collaboration between researchers at New York University and those at a New York City informal science organization, BioBus. It is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Program which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments.This participatory design research project will compare three different formats, in different settings, of afterschool science programming for middle schoolers: one located in a lab space on the campus of a nearby university, one located in the public middle school building of participating students, and one aboard a mobile science lab. For purposes of this study, the construct of “setting” refers to the dimensions of geographic location, built physical environment, and material resources. Setting is not static, but instead social and relational: it is dynamically (co)constructed and experienced in activity by individuals and in interaction by groups of individuals. Therefore, the three BioBus programming types allow for productive comparison not only because of their different geographic locations, built environments, and material resources (e.g., scientific tools), but also the existing relationships learners may have with these places, as well as the instructional designs and pedagogical practices that BioBus teaching scientists use in each. This project uses a design-based research approach to answer the following research questions: (1) How do the settings of science learning shape science identity development? What are different positive science identities that may emerge from these relationships? And (2) What are ways to leverage different spatial aspects of informal science programming and instruction to support positive science identities? The study uses ethnographic and micro-analytic methods to develop better understandings of the relationships between setting and science identity development, uncover a broad range of types of positive science identities taken up by our Black and Latinx students, and inform informal science education to design for and leverage spatial aspects of programming and instruction. Findings will contribute to a systematic knowledge base bringing together spatial aspects of informal science education and science identity and identity development, and provide new tools for informal science educators, including design principles for incorporating spatial factors into program and lesson planning.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.