Infusing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEM Professional Development Kim Costino Kirsty Fleming CSU Dominguez Hills CSU Long Beach
Our Purpose Today Share how we have used a community of practice model of professional development to increase the use of evidence-based teaching (EBT) in the College of Natural Sciences (and beyond) and to support faculty to serve as effective institutional agents for women and underrepresented minorities in the STEM fields Engage you in at least one of the activities we have used
Our Purpose Today Raise questions about the strategy for, and pace with which, issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion are included and addressed in professional development programs for STEM faculty members
2013-2016: Improving Student Success Using Evidenced-based Strategies Purpose: to increase student success by strengthening teaching practices Strategy: provide sustained professional development for faculty members via a Faculty Learning Community Develop a strategic plan designed to involve others in the work
Faculty Learning Communities Structured & intensive Position faculty as learners engaged in scholarly inquiry Work from the social theory of learning as participation Focused on completing deliverables, while attending to the social aspects of building community Intended to develop shared knowledge regarding the scholarship of teaching and learning, while enabling participants to develop individual inquiry projects Enable cultural shifts, often by fostering and supporting collaboration.
Inquiry Questions for Original FLC How does learning work? How can we make our disciplinary ways of thinking and practicing visible to students? What are high-impact, evidence-based teaching practices? How can we implement them in ways that are consistent with how people learn and that will apprentice students into our disciplinary ways of thinking and doing?
2013 – 2015: Original Faculty Learning Community Two-years long; began with an intensive three-day session, then monthly follow-up meetings Facilitators modeled evidenced-based teaching practices Participants implemented and evaluated EBTPs in courses and shared findings
Leverage Points for Integrating Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion One of the key principles regarding how learning works: prior learning, knowledge, assumptions, and experience shapes how students engage, interact, and ultimately acquire new knowledge The FLCs would build the kind of trust and relationships necessary to “go deep” with these issues We had started to shift more consciously and intentionally from thinking about our project as a series of FLCs to “cultivating” a community of practice (Wenger)
Community of Practice (Wenger) Groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and learn how to do it as they interact regularly Evolve organically as they actively foster the development of shared, insider knowledge and purposely seek to foster dialogue between “inside” and “outside” perspectives Invite different levels of participation over time and depending upon current topics
Synergistic Projects Focused on Student Success 2012: Teaching Resource Center January 2016: Quarter to Semester Conversion September 2016: A4US (USDOE #P031C160207) November 2017: ISSUES-X (NSF #1347671)
Differing Levels of Participation Faculty Learning Communities Brown Bag lunches Book Club Faculty showcase Informal lunches “Speed - dating” Guest speakers
A Variety of FLCs: Insider/Outsider Perspectives Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Learning Community Principles of Program Design Learning Community New(er) Faculty Learning Community Hybrid/Online Learning Community Facilitator Learning Community Chair Learning Community STEM Lecturer Faculty Learning Community Advising Learning Community Community College-CSU Learning Community
Unifying Essential Questions for FLCs How does learning work? How can we make our disciplinary ways of thinking and practicing visible to students? What are equity-minded high-impact, evidence-based teaching practices? How can we implement them in ways that are consistent with how people learn and that will apprentice students into our disciplinary ways of thinking and doing?
Pivotal Moments: Summer 2017 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Institute A4US planning – Power dynamics among the participants – Inclusion of planners/facilitators from different groups
Additional Inquiry Questions for Advising PLC What impacts do racism, poverty, social marginalization, (un)conscious bias, and stereotype threat have on student learning? What role can/does self-efficacy and agency, rapport and relationship building play in student learning and how do we foster these elements in the work with do with students?
Revised Essential Question How can we implement inclusive evidence-based teaching practices in ways that engage these more affective dimensions of learning, build from the cultural wealth and connections to community that our students bring with them, and that address the power dynamics inherent in any learning situation?
Activities Norm setting Text-based discussions Discussions about characteristics of our students Workshopping Individual Projects Pivotal moments Role play Case studies Forced Choice Exercise
Sample activity: To Support Chapter on Stereotype Threat in Bandwidth Recovery Think-pair-share: Make a list of the identities you claim Next to each identity, note what stereotype(s), positive or negative, might be associated with it Can you think of a time when one of these stereotypes may have impacted your performance? Your thought processes and feelings with respect to that performance? What was the impact?
Case Study Activity Participants read “ Microagressions and “Modern Racism”” from Bandwidth Recovery Participants were then asked to write a brief scenario in which they had: – witnessed a microagression or – experienced a microagression
Case Study Activity Participants were asked to read the scenarios and then: – Identify the microagressions and the impact they might have on students – Identify how the situation should have been handled – Suggest alternative micro-affirmations
Concluding Thoughts What got us to the revision and evolution were the experiential learning activities and participants being willing to be vulnerable and share their stories — the real ones — but the level/depth people were able to engage, the extent to which they were willing to “go there,” was contingent on the relationships and trust we have built through the community of practice model and that takes time and commitment and intentionality
Concluding Thoughts But does waiting so long have consequences? Who do we lose and/or who bears the brunt in the process and why?
Sample Readings Becoming a Student-Ready College, T.Brown McNair et al “ The Underestimated Significance of Practitioner Knowledge in the Scholarship on Student Success ”, E.M. Bensimon “Whose Culture has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth”, T.J. Yosso Bandwidth Recovery, Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Racism and Social Marginalization, C. Verschelden
Questions?
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