Acknowledging and Shifting the Dynamics of Power: Building Equitable Partnerships Among Informal STEM Learning Practitioners, Researchers, and Communities

承认并改变权力动态：在非正式 STEM 学习从业者、研究人员和社区之间建立公平的伙伴关系

• 批准号: 2313994
• 负责人: Elysa Corin
• 金额: $ 14.32万
• 依托单位: Institute for Learning Innovation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2313994&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Acknowledging; Shifting; Dynamics; Power; Building

The National Science Foundation, particularly the Directorate for STEM Education, has long funded work to support collaborations between researchers and practitioners, and to promote the application of research to improve learning outcomes in formal and informal learning environments. Popular and successful approaches have included the development of online repositories that help practitioners access, understand, and apply research knowledge to their work. Increasingly, these efforts involve partnerships that require [1] acknowledging and navigating boundaries by being open and curious to learn about each other and [2] working across these boundaries since effective partnerships work at these intersections as ideas are exchanged and mediated. This project will enhance understanding of how practitioners and researchers can and should form equitable partnerships in service of supporting lifelong STEM learning in informal learning environments. It will also examine how "community" intersects with partnerships, and the different levels or scales of community with which an ISL partnership of researchers and practitioners may intentionally and equitably engage. This two-phase Partnership Development and Planning project is conducted by the Institute for Learning Innovation and Pueblo Collab LLC, a community-centered consulting organization focused on shifting organizational culture to build better relationships with communities. This project will focus on initial processes of building equitable ISL partnerships between practitioners and researchers by engaging in intentional exercises for co-thinking around issues of equity and power in ISL work. Grounded in Ferrell and colleagues' equity-in-mission and equity-in-process, these efforts are designed to build trust and shared understanding among partners while also confronting systemic power dynamics (and their roles in the team's prior partnerships). In Phase one, the core project members will test and refine the processes examining their own and each other's practices before widening the lens. In Phase two, an expanded group of ISL and ISL-adjacent researchers and practitioners will be engaged. Several claims will be scrutinized using co-constructed process evaluation: 1) Providing sufficient time and space for self-reflection and co-reflection conversations about power in ISL researcher-practitioner relationships can support the development of trust. 2) Providing such time and space to engage in this work is central to the co-creation of a shared research agenda. and 3) Iteratively addressing issues around power and trust is essential to creating a healthy, equitable, and lasting ISL researcher-practitioner partnership. By the end of this project the team will have a) created a strong and expanded partnership; b) developed a collection of conversation prompts and exercises specifically useful for developing equitable partnerships between researchers and practitioners in ISL contexts, c) considered how researcher-practitioner partnerships engage with the communities/public audiences, and d) identified future project ideas that ensure reciprocal benefits for the partners and communities involved. Processes will be shared broadly though a co-written blog series.This Partnership Development & Planning project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports projects that: (a) contribute to research and practice that considers informal STEM learning's role in equity and belonging in STEM; (b) promote personal and educational success in STEM; (c) advance public engagement in scientific discovery; (d) foster interest in STEM careers; (e) create and enhance the theoretical and empirical foundations for effective informal STEM learning; (f) improve community vibrancy; and/or (g) enhance science communication and the public's engagement in and understanding of STEM and STEM processes. By examining the foundational and sometimes problematic practices in the ISL field that must be interrogated to make meaningful change in this space, the project supports AISL's goal for broadening participation in STEM.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.

国家科学基金会，特别是STEM教育局，长期以来一直为支持研究人员和从业者之间的合作提供资金，并促进研究的应用以改善正式和非正式学习环境中的学习成果。受欢迎和成功的方法包括开发在线存储库，这些库，可帮助从业者访问，理解和应用研究知识。这些努力越来越多地涉及需要[1]通过开放和好奇地了解彼此的伙伴关系，并在这些界限上进行[2]，因为随着思想的交换和调解，有效的伙伴关系在这些交叉点上工作。该项目将增强对从业人员和研究人员如何并且应该建立公平合作伙伴关系的理解，以支持非正式学习环境中的终身STEM学习。它还将研究“社区”如何与合作伙伴关系以及与研究人员和从业人员的ISL合作伙伴关系的不同层次或范围相交。这个两阶段的伙伴关系开发和计划项目由学习创新研究所和普韦布洛合作有限责任公司进行，这是一个以社区为中心的咨询组织，旨在转移组织文化以建立与社区建立更好的关系。该项目将重点关注从业人员和研究人员之间建立公平ISL合作伙伴关系的初步过程，通过进行有意练习，以围绕ISL工作中的公平和权力问题进行共同思考。这些努力基于Ferrell及其同事的公平损失和公平性，旨在在合作伙伴之间建立信任和共享的理解，同时还与系统的权力动态（及其在团队先前的合作伙伴关系中的作用）。在第一阶段，核心项目成员将在扩大镜头之前测试和完善对自己和彼此的实践检查的过程。在第二阶段，将参与一组ISL和ISL的研究人员和从业者。通过共同构建过程评估将对几项索赔进行审查：1）提供足够的时间和空间来进行自我反思和有关权力的共同反思对话，涉及ISL研究人员 - 抛弃者关系中的权力可以支持信任的发展。 2）提供从事这项工作的时间和空间对于共同研究议程的共同创造至关重要。 3）迭代解决有关权力和信任的问题对于建立健康，公平和持久的ISL研究人员 - 实证人伙伴关系至关重要。到该项目结束时，团队将拥有a）建立强大而扩展的合作伙伴关系； b）开发了一系列的对话提示和练习，这些提示和练习对于在ISL上下文中建立研究人员和从业者之间的公平伙伴关系，c）考虑研究人员 - 抛弃者的合作伙伴关系如何与社区/公众受众群体互动，d）确定未来的项目思想，以确保为涉及的伙伴和社区提供互惠利益。尽管一个共同撰写的博客系列将大量共享流程。此合作伙伴关系开发与计划项目由前进的非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助，该计划支持：（a）为研究和实践做出贡献的项目，这些项目认为非正式的STEM学习在公平中的作用并属于STEM中； （b）在STEM中促进个人和教育成功； （c）提高公众参与科学发现； （d）促进对STEM职业的兴趣； （e）为有效的非正式STEM学习创建和增强理论和经验基础； （f）改善社区活力；和/或（g）增强科学交流以及公众对STEM和STEM过程的参与和理解。通过检查必须对ISL领域的基础，有时甚至有问题的实践进行审问，这些实践必须在该领域进行有意义的改变，该项目支持AISL的目标，以扩大参与STEM的参与。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛影响的评估审查审查的标准来通过评估来支持的。