Infusing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEM Professional - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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

• f 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

• f 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

• n 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

• f Community Cultural Wealth”, T.J. Yosso

 Bandwidth Recovery, Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to

Poverty, Racism and Social Marginalization, C. Verschelden

Questions?