Fostering More Accurate and Identity-Affirming Science Teaching and Learning at Hispanic-Serving Institutions

该项目旨在通过增加STEM和医疗保健劳动力并使其多样化，为国家利益服务，配备具备准确和确认身份的科学知识和经验的个人。来自科罗拉多州立大学、佛罗里达国际大学和亚利桑那州立大学的一个教员团队将调查“中立”的规范(即，不承认社会身份和社会背景对科学的作用或科学对社会的作用)如何影响拉美裔服务机构(HSI)的本科生理科教学，一些教师如何打破这一规范，教授认同肯定的内容，以及这种变化如何影响学生。HSIS的这项工作之所以重要，是因为人们对HSIS内的教育工作者如何有意识地为来自少数族裔背景的学生提供服务，而不是简单地招收学生，以及如何照顾西班牙裔/拉丁裔社区内的不同亚群越来越感兴趣。了解如何支持教师打破“中立”的规范，应该为不同身份的学生创造更友好的环境，并增加学生对STEM的归属感、兴趣和保持。本项目计划在五个HSI采用混合方法(访谈和调查)、多地点案例研究方法。三个目标指导着项目的执行。首先是描述HSIS的本科生生物学教师如何就是否以及如何在他们的课程中包括身份确认内容做出决定，以及影响这些决定的各种因素。第二，确定生物中的身份肯定内容如何影响学生的体验，如归属感、对生物内容的兴趣和感知的内容相关性。第三个目标是开发一种调查工具，以捕捉学生对HSIS生物教学中不同教师方法的普遍程度的看法。该项目团队将特别关注教师在生物课上使用身份中立或身份确认的内容，以及这种类型的内容对身份微型化的学生的影响。这个项目采用了一种新颖的研究方法，通过检查教师关于教学内容和教学方法的决定，更全面地了解教师如何创造确认身份的环境。这个项目应该促进教师如何在HSIS的背景下对他们的教学方法和课程内容做出决定的理解。NSF IUSE：EDU计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过其参与的学生学习跟踪，该计划支持有前途的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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 and diversifying the STEM and healthcare workforce with individuals equipped with accurate and identity-affirming scientific knowledge and experiences. A team of faculty from Colorado State University, Florida International University, and Arizona State University will investigate how the norm of “neutrality” (i.e., not acknowledging the role of social identities and social contexts on science or the role of science on society) impacts undergraduate science teaching at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), how some instructors break free of this norm to teach identify-affirming content, and how this change impacts students. This work at HSIs is important because of the growing interest in how educators within HSIs are intentionally serving, rather than simply enrolling, students from minoritized backgrounds and attending to different subgroups within Hispanic/Latinx communities. Understanding how to support instructors to break with the norm of “neutrality” should create more welcoming environments for students with a range of identities and increase student belongingness, interest, and retention in STEM.This project plans to employ a mixed methods (interviews and surveys), multi-site case study approach at five HSIs. Three goals guide the execution of the project. The first is to characterize how undergraduate biology instructors at HSIs make decisions about if and how to include identity-affirming content in their courses and the various factors that influence these decisions. Second is to establish how identity-affirming content in biology impacts student experiences, such as belongingness, interest in biology content, and perceived content relevance. The third goal is to develop a survey instrument to capture student perceptions of the prevalence of different instructor approaches to biology instruction at HSIs. The project team will specifically focus on instructors’ use of identity-neutral or identity-affirming content in biology classes, and the impact this type of content has on students with minoritized identities. This project takes a novel research approach by examining instructors’ decisions regarding both content and pedagogy, a more holistic approach to understanding how instructors create identity-affirming environments. This project should advance understanding of how instructors make decisions about their pedagogy and course content in the context of HSIs. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through its 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.