The SELC Grant

Our long-term goal is to transform introductory STEM courses into equitable learning environments. To do so, it is imperative that faculty, administrators, and undergraduate students recognize the structural role that courses and departments play in student success. Department leaders, as key connectors with both faculty and administrators, are central to this process. The overall objective of this proposal is to establish STEM Equity Learning Communities (SELCs) in universities across the U.S. that will foster impactful approaches for engaging faculty, department leaders, and undergraduate students in equity-minded discussions of their STEM courses. Our central hypothesis is that when SELCs use course equity measures, co-develop interpretations of the data and action plans, and present their findings to campus leadership, they will develop equity-mindedness and be well-positioned to promote this mindset in their departments. We are particularly well-prepared to undertake the proposed research because our Sloan Equity and Inclusion in STEM Introductory Courses (SEISMIC) collaboration has engaged 10 large research universities in equity measurement and course transformation conversations over the past three years. One of the strengths of SEISMIC is that it has already built relationships across faculty, administrator, and student lines on each campus. In addition, several of the SEISMIC institutions have already organized their institutional data to facilitate parallel equity analyses across courses, departments, and institutions.

Each participating institution will establish one SELC made up of (at minimum) four STEM faculty members, two undergraduate students, one institutional researcher, and one facilitator (evolutionary and political change perspective). The faculty members should have recent teaching experience in introductory STEM courses and a role in their department leadership or their department’s curriculum planning. We have found that faculty in these roles tend to be interested in accessing course equity data, learning how to bring this information to their departments in useful ways, and have the power to direct department conversations. Ideally, three to four STEM departments on each campus would be represented by these faculty members, resulting in impacts on 30 to 40 departments across the U.S. The participating faculty members will use past class email lists to advertise the student positions to students who completed their intro STEM courses in recent terms. We use the term “institutional researcher” loosely to refer to someone who is able to access institutional data and run R code. This type of person may have different titles at different universities. Besides accessing data, the institutional researcher will also make key decisions on how equity measurements are conducted and presented (social cognition change perspective). The facilitator can be a staff member in the local teaching and learning center, the office of diversity and inclusion, or another related unit with experience facilitating faculty conversations on equity. They will be the key contact between the local SELC on each campus and the project leadership team (institutional change perspective).