Empowering Engineering Scholar-Activists through Community-driven Research Experiences

通过社区驱动的研究经验赋予工程学者积极分子权力

• 批准号: 2051502
• 负责人: Maura Borrego
• 金额: $ 47.39万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-06-01 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2051502&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Empowering; Engineering; Scholar; Activists; through

Despite efforts to advance diversity and inclusion resources on college campuses, engineering culture remains a chilly climate for students with marginalized identities. While prior studies have focused on investigating the experience of engineering students from underrepresented populations, they largely ignore students at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities and they often lack significant action to help create more inclusive environments. This project will take the next step to move beyond merely describing the experiences of marginalized engineering students. The ultimate goal of this work will be to change engineering culture by growing a collaborative, student-driven research community of underrepresented engineering students and allies. This community of scholar-activists will employ their scholarship on marginalized engineering student populations to advocate for personal and institutional change. Students will read and discuss relevant engineering education and sociology literature, reflect on their own experiences and actions, engage with activists across campus, conduct their own research on engineers from marginalized groups, and lead future community outreach and organization efforts. This project aligns with the Broadening Participation in Engineering (BPE) program to enhance the diversity and inclusion of underrepresented groups in engineering, particularly in its innovative approach to creating inclusive research communities that will improve retention of students from underrepresented groups and that can be replicated in other contexts.In the pursuit to develop scholar-activists among students historically marginalized in engineering, this project will engage students in a vibrant research community where they are supported in pursuing their own undergraduate and graduate research projects for and about broadening participation in engineering. Key components of the project will include a research group that provides constructive feedback and support of student-initiated qualitative research, a network of faculty and graduate researcher mentors, journal clubs with an open invitation for marginalized students and allies to read and discuss the literature on BPE, and opportunities for all engineering faculty to learn inclusive practices. Our theoretical stance will follow the tenets of critical theory: (1) We will center the voices of the students in the research by engaging them as researchers. (2) We will value lived experience as an important qualification for doing this research. (3) We will empower the students leading the research, which will strengthen their social identities and potentially their activist identities. (4) We will integrate research and action and are prepared to deal with the inherent contradictions. To enact this critical approach and develop scholar-activists, we will use resistance and social justice literature from within and beyond engineering education. The overall model of creating a student-centered research community around marginalized engineers is potentially transformative and has potential for adoption at other institutions and for other engineering student populations. This project will train marginalized engineering students to build community wherever they go next. Additionally, this project is likely to improve climate and retention by creating additional (and increasing visibility of) safe spaces for marginalized engineering students.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.

尽管努力促进大学校园的多样性和包容性资源，但对于边缘化身份的学生来说，工程文化仍然是一种寒冷的氛围。虽然之前的研究重点调查来自代表性不足的人群的工程专业学生的经历，但它们在很大程度上忽略了处于多重边缘化身份交叉点的学生，而且他们往往缺乏重大行动来帮助创造更具包容性的环境。该项目将采取下一步行动，超越仅仅描述边缘化工程专业学生的经历。这项工作的最终目标是通过发展一个由代表性不足的工程学生和盟友组成的协作的、学生驱动的研究社区来改变工程文化。这个学者活动家社区将利用他们对边缘化工程学生群体的奖学金来倡导个人和制度变革。学生将阅读和讨论相关的工程教育和社会学文献，反思自己的经历和行动，与校园内的积极分子互动，对边缘群体的工程师进行自己的研究，并领导未来的社区外展和组织工作。该项目与扩大工程参与（BPE）计划相一致，旨在增强工程领域代表性不足群体的多样性和包容性，特别是其创建包容性研究社区的创新方法，这将提高代表性不足群体学生的保留率，并且可以在为了在历史上在工程领域被边缘化的学生中培养学者活动家，该项目将使学生参与一个充满活力的研究社区，在那里他们将得到支持，以开展自己的本科生和研究生研究项目，以扩大对工程的参与。该项目的关键组成部分将包括一个为学生发起的定性研究提供建设性反馈和支持的研究小组、一个由教师和研究生研究员导师组成的网络、公开邀请边缘化学生和盟友阅读和讨论相关文献的期刊俱乐部。 BPE 以及所有工程教师学习包容性实践的机会。我们的理论立场将遵循批判理论的原则：（1）我们将通过让学生成为研究人员来将他们的声音集中在研究中。 (2) 我们将重视生活经验作为进行这项研究的重要资格。 (3) 我们将赋予领导研究的学生权力，这将加强他们的社会身份和潜在的活动家身份。 （四）研究与行动结合，做好应对内在矛盾的准备。为了实施这种批判性方法并培养学者活动家，我们将利用工程教育内外的抵抗和社会正义文献。围绕边缘化工程师创建一个以学生为中心的研究社区的总体模式具有潜在的变革性，并且有可能被其他机构和其他工程专业的学生群体采用。该项目将培训边缘化的工程专业学生，无论他们下一步去哪里，都可以建立社区。此外，该项目可能会通过为边缘化工程专业学生创造额外的（并提高可见性）安全空间来改善氛围和保留率。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进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。

项目成果

LGBTQ+ in ECE: Culture and (Non)Visibility

ECE 中的 LGBTQ：文化和（非）可见性

• DOI: 10.1109/te.2021.3057542
• 发表时间: 2021-11
• 期刊: IEEE Transactions on Education
• 影响因子: 2.6
• 作者: Yang, Jerry A.;Sherard, Max K.;Julien, Christine;Borrego, Maura
• 通讯作者: Borrego, Maura

Queering Engineering Through a Student Driven LGBTQIA+ Reading Group (Experience)

通过学生驱动的 LGBTQIA 阅读小组来了解工程（体验）

• 发表时间: 2021-07
• 期刊: ASEE annual conference exposition
• 作者: Bakka, Brandon;Chou, Vivian;Marchioni, Jeffrey;Prince, Cassandra;Sugerman, Gabriella;Upreti, Ria;Clayton, Patricia;Borrego, Maura
• 通讯作者: Borrego, Maura

Transformational Resistance and Identity Development: A Case Study of an Asexual Woman Engineer

转型阻力与身份发展：无性女工程师的案例研究

• 发表时间: 2022-01
• 期刊: The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity (CoNECD
• 作者: Chou, Vivian;Yang, Jerry A.;Bakka, Brandon;Clayton, Patricia;Borrego, Maura
• 通讯作者: Borrego, Maura

RESISTANCE AND COMMUNITY-BUILDING IN LGBTQ+ ENGINEERING STUDENTS

LGBTQ 工科学生的抵抗和社区建设

• DOI: 10.1615/jwomenminorscieneng.2021035089
• 发表时间: 2021-01
• 期刊: Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering
• 作者: Yang, Jerry A.;Sherard, Max K.;Julien, Christine;Borrego, Maura
• 通讯作者: Borrego, Maura