Postdoctoral Fellowship: STEMEdIPRF: Towards a Diverse Professoriate: Experiences that Inform Underrepresented Scholars' Perceptions of Value Alignment and Career Decisions

一些学院和大学致力于从代表性不足的群体中招募个人进入STEM部门的教师职位，以持续努力为本科生和研究生创造更加多样化，有效和包容的学习环境。虽然成功的教师招聘工作对于国家应对STEM教育挑战至关重要，但很少有先前的研究关注那些选择退出学术生涯的学者的决策过程。 该项目将重点关注来自代表性不足群体的学者，并认识到交叉性，即Crenshaw定义的种族和性别交叉性等社会身份的相互关联性。这个博士后研究奖学金项目旨在加深我们对决定退出学术生涯的因素的理解。拟议的项目旨在促进对来自获得终端学位的代表性不足群体的STEM学者的职业选择过程的了解，并促进对这些选择的经验的理解。具体而言，本研究的目的是：1）在家庭、社区和文化的背景下，确定学者的价值观和影响这些价值观的发展经历; 2）评估研究生院的经历，这些经历塑造了学者对这些价值观与学术界的一致性或不一致性的看法，并将其作为就业兴趣的一个因素;（3）考察随着时间的推移对学者职业决策和价值观的影响。 为了实现这些目标，研究者将进行一项纵向定性研究，以社会认知职业理论为指导，采用现象学方法，探索全国大学化学研究生课程中代表性不足群体的学者的职业选择过程。（干艾德PRF）计划，旨在提高研究知识，技能，并在干，干教育，教育，和相关学科，以促进他们的准备，从事基础和应用研究，在该领域的进步知识。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得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的支持。

Some colleges and universities work to recruit individuals from underrepresented groups into faculty positions in STEM departments in ongoing efforts to create more diverse, effective, and inclusive learning environments for undergraduate and graduate students. While successful faculty recruitment efforts are essential for the Nation to meet STEM educational challenges, little prior research has focused on experiences that inform the decision-making processes of scholars who opt out of academic careers. This project will focus on scholars from underrepresented groups and recognize intersectionality, that is the interconnected nature of social identities such as race and gender intersectionality, as defined by Crenshaw. This postdoctoral research fellowship project is designed to deepen our understanding of the factors that contribute to decisions to opt out of academic careers.The proposed project aims to advance knowledge of the career choice processes for STEM scholars from underrepresented groups receiving terminal degrees and advance understanding of the experiences that inform those choices. Specifically, the project is designed to address the following research aims: 1) identify scholars’ values and the developmental experiences that informed those values within the context of families, communities, and cultures; 2) evaluate graduate school experiences that shaped scholars’ perceptions of the alignment or misalignment of those values with academia as a factor in employment interests; and 3) examine influences on scholars’ career decisions and values over time. To accomplish these aims, the investigator will conduct a longitudinal qualitative study to explore the career choice processes of scholars from underrepresented groups in chemistry graduate programs at universities across the country using phenomenographic methodology and guided by Social Cognitive Career Theory.This project is funded by the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field.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.