Atwater receives $229K NSF grant to research racial microaggression
Awarded by the National Science Foundation, science education professor Mary Atwater’s $229,061 Early-Concept Grant for Exploratory Research will examine new ways to broaden participation in STEM fields for science education faculty of African or Latino ancestry.
There has been little research in this area in science education," said Atwater, who is the Sachs Distinguished Lecturer in residence at Teachers College, Columbia University. “In fact, there is very little microaggression research that has been done in which the participants are people of European-American descent.
While prior research has focused almost exclusively on faculty and students of color within higher education, Atwater will be using various methods in her study, “Exploring Racial Microaggression in Science Education,” to examine microaggressors at seven institutions of higher education with science education programs.