The National Science Foundation-CIRTL INCLUDES sponsored project brought together a diverse set of organizations—all with distinctive histories, missions, and views on higher education— to contemplate how best to prepare and support STEM faculty in the effort to broaden the representation and success of historically underrepresented students in two- and four-year institutions.

The Research Team held two roles in this project: (1) the implementation of a small-scale research study and (2) the provision of counsel for the Leadership Team (LT). With regard to the research study, the research team implemented an observational study of the CIRTL INCLUDE’s first summit (Spring 2017) in order to examine how stakeholders, who held different organizational affiliations, different disciplinary training, and whose personal and professional demographic history varied, worked together. In general, the research team was interested in understanding how such a diverse set of stakeholders navigated the complexities of diversity and inclusion work. Informed by the literature on partnership formation, organizational change, and diversity work in higher education, the research team assumed that organizational affiliation and disciplinary training might yield different, and potentially divergent, views as to the role that STEM faculty should play in diversity efforts, or about diversity work, in general. Thus, the research team designed a qualitative observational study, in which all summit participants were assigned a code which was later mapped back onto their respective demographic markers (e.g., organizational affiliation, disciplinary training, experience with diversity and/or STEM work, gender, and race). Then, the team observed and transcribed all aspects of summit 1, from start to finish, including whole-group and small group interactions. The team relied on assigned participant codes to trace individual contributions as well as participant exchanges and interactions. As a complement to observations, the research team conducted informal interviews with varied summit participants.

Based on an inductive analysis of this data set, the research team revealed critical insights that align with, but also extend current literature concerning diversity work in higher education. Specifically, the research team found that the vast majority, perhaps all, participants espoused a serious commitment to diversifying STEM. All participants understood the general goal of the project and agreed that their organization was interested in furthering that goal. However, progress or consensus was temporarily stymied by two factors. First, although there was a diverse range of academic and professional skill sets in the room, and not all participants shared an understanding of key vocabulary and tasks (e.g., stakeholder analysis, SWAT analysis). Second, and perhaps more fundamentally important, several stakeholders desired a firmer and clearer diversity definition. It seemed that although participants conceptually agreed with diversification efforts, some people, and often people of minoritized backgrounds (e.g., women, racial/ethnic minorities), desired more concrete, contextualized, and specific discussion items and metrics in relation to the project's goal. Based on this analysis, the research team is developing a conference proposal and manuscript, which will contribute to the broader social science research concerning diversity work in STEM graduate education and faculty careers. Moreover, as a result of these findings, the CIRTL-INCLUDES project went on to administer a Social Equity retreat, in which CIRTL-INCLUDES participants had the opportunity to learn about several key concepts and ideas relevant to diversity work.

In terms of transferable insights, or insights that are helpful to a broader audience: the research team suggests that in any interdisciplinary, multi-sector project, a leadership team should define key vocabulary and provide basic templates for activities that are central to the accomplishment of the work. The research team also suggests that project leadership should not only differentiate between synonyms and phrases that are often used interchangeably in diversity work (e.g., URM, URG, minority), but also highlight what the meaning of diversity is in the context of a particular project. Stakeholders will benefit from statistical overviews concerning representation and disaggregated outcomes as well as qualitative data that details what is meant by diversity, and why it is important in connection with the project's goals.  

Last Modified: 07/30/2018
Modified by: Leslie Gonzales