Postdoctoral Fellowship: STEMEdIPRF: Understanding instructor and student concepts of race to measure the prevalence of race essentialism in biology education

种族本质主义是一种错误的信念，认为种族是一种内在的生物特征，导致不同的种族类别。虽然种族本质主义已被证明与偏见、刻板印象和偏见的增加有关，但提高学生对种族的理解已被证明可以降低这些扭曲的信念。该项目旨在通过评估STEM教师和学生对种族的看法，提高对交叉性的认识，并针对课堂上对种族的误解提出建议，为国家利益服务。这些建议最终将为STEM教育的改进提供信息，这对教授种族和民族具有重要意义，并可能导致对社会中种族的更准确理解。该项目测量了本科生物教师和学生的种族概念，并将这些信息与现有的生物教育文献和多样性、公平和包容性专家的建议结合起来，通过反本质主义和文化相关的视角，为本科生物学中的种族和祖先教学创建全面的指导方针。种族偏见直接伤害了历史上被边缘化和被排斥的社区，但对于个别教师和学生如何感知种族概念或如何通过课程材料加强种族概念，我们知之甚少。虽然目前几乎所有的研究都支持一种社会建构的种族观，但种族本质论在公众和科学研究中仍然盛行。STEM教育工作者在对抗种族本质主义观点方面处于独特的地位，对我们的学生和更广泛的社会都有积极的影响。本项目旨在实现以下目标：(1)探索教生物学的STEM教师的教育实践和信仰，(2)分析本科生物学学生的种族概念以及他们如何回应这些主题的教学，(3)通过对学生和教师的深入访谈来扩展教师和学生的种族概念（1&2），以及(4)创建和传播新的指导方针，通过识别与种族相关的生物学教育中的差距和失误来解决这些问题。该项目将通过创建生物课程中种族和血统教学方式的总结，以及制定针对特定种族误解的指导方针和建议，来改善STEM教育。本项目由美国国家科学基金会STEM教育博士后研究奖学金（STEM Ed PRF）项目支持，Kaleta A. Doolin基金会共同资助。STEM教育博士后研究奖学金（STEM Ed PRF）计划旨在提高STEM， STEM教育，教育和相关学科的近期博士的研究知识，技能和实践，以促进他们从事基础和应用研究的准备，从而推进该领域的知识。Kaleta a . Doolin基金会通过与美国国家科学基金会的合作，旨在促进STEM/STEM教育研究人员的更大多样性。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。

Race essentialism is the incorrect belief that race is an inherent biological characteristic resulting in distinct race categories. While race essentialism has been shown to be correlated with increased bias, stereotypes, and prejudice, improving student understandings of race has been shown to lower these distorted beliefs. This project is designed to serve the national interest by assessing beliefs about race of STEM instructors and students, increasing awareness of intersectionality, and developing recommendations targeting misconceptions about race in the classroom. These recommendations will ultimately inform improvements in STEM education which is of significance to teaching race and ethnicity and could result in more accurate understandings of race in society. This project measures undergraduate biology instructors’ and students’ concepts of race and combine this information with existing biology education literature and recommendations from experts in diversity, equity, and inclusion to create comprehensive guidelines for teaching race and ancestry in undergraduate biology through anti-essentialist and culturally relevant lenses. Racial biases directly harm historically marginalized and excluded communities, but little is known about how race concepts are perceived by individual faculty and students or reinforced by curricular materials. While virtually all current research supports a socially constructed view of race, race essentialism is still prevalent among the public and within scientific research. STEM educators in biology are in a unique position to counteract essentialist views of race and have a positive impact on both our students as well as the broader society. This project is designed to accomplish the following goals: (1) Explore the educational practices and beliefs of STEM instructors who teach biology, (2) Analyze the race concepts of undergraduate biology students and how they respond to instruction on these topics, (3) Expand upon instructor and student race concepts (1&2) with in-depth interviews of students and instructors, and (4) Create and disseminate new guidelines to address these issues by identifying gaps and missteps in biology education related to race. This project will improve STEM Education by creating a summary of the ways race and ancestry are taught in biology courses and by developing guidelines and recommendations that target specific race misconceptions. This project is supported by NSF’s STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) Program with co-funding from The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation. 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. The Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation through a partnership with the National Science Foundation seeks to promote greater diversity within the STEM/STEM education research workforce.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.