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Explore past and current fundamental STEM education research projects across the three research areas that NSF's EDU Core Research (ECR) program funds, as well as across ECR funding types. Other search filters draw from both NSF's data and the ECR Hub's hand coding of award abstracts.

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STEM Learning and Learning Environments STEM Learning and Learning Environments  

Building Capacity for Equitable Research on STEM Learning Processes using Quantitative Ethnography

Effective Years: 2022-2025

The goal of the Quantitative Ethnography Institute is to increase the capacity of STEM education researchers to conduct quantitative ethnography (QE) to address fundamental questions in STEM education. A key challenge in STEM education research is using large amounts of rich qualitative data to develop models of student learning that accurately represent diverse learning processes and can be implemented at scale. QE helps mitigate this challenge by unifying quantitative and qualitative techniques, enabling researchers to produce models of large-scale qualitative data that are (1) fair and actionable for diverse learners, educators, and policy leaders and (2) statistically valid and generalizable.

The Quantitative Ethnography Institute will recruit three cohorts of 30 participants, the majority of whom will be underrepresented early-career researchers, to engage in a 4-part series of training and mentoring activities identified as the Accelerator, the Incubator, the Booster, and the Multiplier. The Accelerator is the initial 4-day in-person workshop focused on the fundamentals of QE theory, methods, and techniques. The Incubator, which occurs approximately 3 months after the Accelerator, is a 1-day online workshop which gives participants the opportunity to present their QE research-in progress and receive feedback from peers and mentors. The Booster, which occurs approximately 3 months after the Incubator, is a 2-day online focused on techniques for writing successful QE conference papers, journal articles, and grant proposals. The Multiplier, which occurs approximately 3 months after the Booster, is a 2-day online workshop which teaches participants how to run their own QE and workshops.

The project is supported by NSF’s EHR Core Research Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) program, which is designed to build investigators’ capacity to carry out high-quality STEM education research.

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.