| NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 19, 2020 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | October 14, 2020 |
| Award Number: | 2041007 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Jolene Jesse
jjesse@nsf.gov (703)292-7303 DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | September 15, 2020 |
| End Date: | February 28, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $99,874.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $99,874.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1220 L ST NW STE 1000 WASHINGTON DC US 20005-4825 (202)478-6084 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1307 New York Avenue Washington DC US 20005-4722 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Accelerating Discovery in Ed |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
Recent work published by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) documents evidence of the experiences and barriers facing faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students from underrepresented groups in STEM, especially in the later stages of the pathways to the professoriate. Nationally there have been only incremental changes, and effective, lasting institutional and systemic transformation practices to support the success of diversity, equity and inclusion in the academy have yet to be identified and implemented. Systemic transformation efforts require the input of multiple and varied stakeholders, ensuring that the responsibility for creating change is shared by the larger collective, especially in service of broadening participation in STEM. Such change also requires thinking in different ways about intractable problems, centering the experiences of STEM faculty from underrepresented groups, and creating new approaches to current practices. APLU will convene three half-day virtual meetings to address three systemic barriers to success for STEM faculty from underrepresented groups: (1) recruitment and hiring, (2) faculty evaluation, and (3) institutional leadership. The convenings will engage institutional leaders, educational researchers, disciplinary societies, policymakers, and philanthropic funders to envision new practice and research strategies.
This virtual conference series is designed to engage a broad number of stakeholders in academia to tackle the seemingly intractable problem of a system-wide increase of STEM faculty from underrepresented groups and the use of inclusive and equity-informed practices. Developing a community of change agents and scholars who have co-developed and coalesced around a common agenda for change will help to create momentum and ensure that change is supported moving forward. Each half-day convening will be facilitated using a design-thinking approach that centers the experiences and perspectives of faculty, especially those faculty historically underrepresented in STEM. The resulting deliverables and engagement or representatives from institutions, funders, disciplines, and other organizations will serve as a launch pad for improving STEM by identifying new strategies for implementation and areas for research to build upon prior successes in effecting change.
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.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Project Overview
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) hosted a Three-Part Series to Envision & Enact an Inclusive & Diverse STEM Professoriate (EEIDSP; NSF #2041007) that brought together the STEM higher education community to imagine new futures in implementation and research on creating an inclusive and diverse STEM professoriate.The goals were to:
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Encourage participants to think boldly about restructuring significant elements of the underrepresented group (URG) STEM faculty experience;
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Identify points of collaboration and collective action to address ongoing sticking points in efforts to transform the interdependent STEM ?ecosystem;?
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Surface new areas for research to inform future evidence-based lines of activity, intervention, and systemic change efforts
Broader Impacts
This series engaged stakeholders in the STEM ecosystem to tackle the seemingly intractable problem of a system-wide increase of underrepresented group (URG) STEM faculty by co-constructing a plan for change and research. Using a design-thinking approach, participants identified innovative approaches towards faculty recruitment and hiring, the evaluation of faculty, and leadership that centers equity. Our report, Design Thinking in the EEIDSP Conference Series, summarizes the design process and artifacts created.
Think Tank & Working Sessions. We chose to adopt the language of ?think tank and working session? to indicate that these convenings would require active participation from each attendee.
Session 1 - Aligning the Recruitment & Hiring of Diverse STEM Faculty - March 4, 2021
The first session focused on building empathy and better understanding of a candidate?s experience by using profiles developed with input from steering committee members, and grounded in the research literature on the experiences of URG faculty applicants. Participants were assigned one of three candidate profiles, and in small groups identified what their assigned candidate might be thinking, feeling, observing, and doing as they entered the faculty hiring process. They then mapped the journey of the candidate, including pride and pain points that might be encountered. Finally, participants brainstormed ?how they might? develop processes and policies that amplified pride points and minimize pain points. See EEIDSP Session 1 Materials for the profiles and final Mural.
Session 2 - Equitable STEM Faculty Evaluation & Reviews of Research - June 3, 2021
To re-consider faculty evaluation practices, we helped participants to identify structural organizational elements that might serve as a barrier to equitable reviews of faculty work through Ray?s (2019) theory of racialized organizations. Participants considered different elements of faculty evaluation in the three primary domains of research, service, and teaching. They identified how features of racialized organizations might impact those domains, and they proposed alternative arrangements for the future. See EEIDSP Session 2 Materials for the evaluation terrain and final Mural.
Session 3 - Inclusive Leadership to Support Diverse & Inclusive STEM Faculty - September 16, 2021
Participants considered how they show up as a leader in the various sites external to institutions of higher education within academe. They reflected on how core cultural norms of the STEM academy (credentialing, narrow definition of valuable scholarship, research as the coin of the realm, idealized worker, and meritocratic system) may be hindering equity within disciplinary societies, academic publishing, extramural funders, and other influencers (legislatures, non-profits, accreditors, ranking systems, think tanks, and the general public). Participants identified ways to engage in collaborative and collective action. See EEIDSP Session 3 Materials for the final Mural.
Intellectual Merit
Systemic transformation efforts require the input of multiple and varied stakeholders, and ensuring that the responsibility for creating change ? especially in service of diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM ? is shared by the larger collective. Developing a community of change agents and scholars who have co-developed and coalesced around a common agenda for change will help to create momentum and ensure that change is supported moving forward. To sustain this momentum, we have created a community dialogue toolkit and summative synthesis report to inform future conversations.
Community Dialogue Toolkits. We translated the think tank and working session materials into a Dialogue Toolkit. The toolkit consists of an editable Facilitation Guide populated with the facilitation plans used for the convenings, annotated with recommendations and reflections by the Planning Committee to support future facilitators.Template versions of each MURAL were created to allow individuals to replicate and customize the digital collaboration tools to their own contexts or goals.
Summative Synthesis. The planning committee drafted a synthesizing report that leveraged a) participants? comments and dialogue during the think tank and working sessions; b) the theoretical frameworks that informed session design; and c) the extant literature on inequities for faculty careers in STEM. The report, Framing the Dialogue for Systemic Equity Reform in STEM Faculty Careers, provides the foundation for a national conversation focused on three key concepts: 1. Tracing, Addressing, and Dismantling Systemic Inequities in STEM Faculty Careers, 2. Tracking in STEM Faculty Careers, and 3. Broadening the Bar: Redefining What Counts in Hiring and Evaluation.
Last Modified: 06/28/2022
Modified by: Jessica C Bennett
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