Abstract
A primary reason for the persistent underrepresentation of minoritized people in STEM careers are their marginalizing experiences in STEM courses, which has spurred efforts to prepare STEM faculty to implement inclusive teaching practices. The Inclusive STEM Teaching Project (ISTP) addresses this nationwide challenge by providing STEM faculty a free, online course and associated learning communities (LCs) led by project-trained facilitators. ISTP centers identity, power, privilege and positionality and has successfully shifted educators’ mindsets and abilities. A central question is whether local LCs across contexts maintain equity-minded core practices and achieve inclusive, reflective practitioner outcomes. Our mixed methods analysis of LC participant (n = 165) and facilitator (n = 83) matching survey data spanning five course offerings over two years directly explores the relationship between the learning environments created by facilitators and their participant experiences. Findings demonstrate high fidelity of implementation to training by facilitators that resulted in consistent LC experiences of participants, especially around building a community, sense of belonging and positive peer engagement. Participants overall speak to the importance of facilitated LCs as an inclusive space where they can critically engage with one another as they reflect on, discuss, and ultimately improve their inclusive teaching practices.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
↵* Shared first authorship
Author Note Alexandria H. Yen is now at Career Advising & Professional Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Haley Lewis is not at the Environmental Protection Agency in Seattle, Washington. Vanessa Johnson-Ojeda is now at the Department of Health & Human Services in Salt Lake City, Utah.
We have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
We acknowledge Veronica Womack, Diamond Buchanan, Tazin Daniels, Schnaude Dorizan, Robin Greenler, Ivan Hernandez, Lisa Himelman, Patricia Jaimes, Stephanie Kusano, Tershia Pinder-Grover, and Sara Woods for contributing to the design and refinement of the facilitator training materials and the facilitator workbook referred to in this manuscript. We also acknowledge Ivan Hernandez and Lucas Hill for their contributions to the survey design, and to Michael Goldberg for calculations of the probability distribution of distance between facilitator and participant responses. We acknowledge the support of all the now 513 and growing Inclusive STEM Teaching Project learning community facilitators. Their energy, commitment, engagement, thoughtfulness, and reflective and inclusive facilitation is an amazing contribution to their learning community participants and to inclusive teaching nationwide.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. (1821684, 1821571, 1821528, 1821510, 1821574). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
