Catalyzing Research in Geographies of Broadening Participation

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When students consider higher education, they often ask "Where should I go to college?" Meanwhile departments ask "Where do we find a more diverse faculty/student body?" These questions reveal how the nature of participation in higher education is fundamentally spatial and geographic. For underrepresented groups, research shows proximity to home and characteristics of place to have an even more significant impact on such decisions. Where universities are, where prospective underrepresented students or faculty are coming from, and the complex dynamics of geographic context influence the uneven and low participation of underrepresented groups. These underlying phenomena could be better understood through the lens of geographic research and strong disciplinary traditions focused on concepts of space and place. Yet, the predominant conceptual approach to broadening participation in higher education continues to be one of building "pipeline" relationships among educational institutions serving students at different stages -- from grade school, middle school, secondary, community colleges, undergraduate to graduate levels. However, this linear metaphor overlooks that such relationships actually occur in real places and at distances across space. As an intellectually diverse discipline encompassing traditions from GIScience to critical geographies and much more, geography is well positioned to contribute transformative insights about access and success in higher education for broadly defined underrepresented populations, including racial/ethnic minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and economically and socially disadvantaged or marginalized populations, oriented to the NSF's initiative to create a Science of Broadening Participation (SBP). In this project, 16 competitively-selected researchers, including senior scholars with advanced expertise and early career scholars with leadership potential and strong ties to underrepresented communities, will gather for a 3-day creative scholarly retreat. A collective research agenda focused on geography's diverse intellectual contributions to defining and developing SBP will inspire new research priorities, interdisciplinary collaborations, funding strategies, and innovative directions. The program will support small grants and a research and writing period to further develop contributions initiated for the retreat and explore new questions. Manuscripts will later be collected into a scholarly publication to be disseminated through extensive AAG venues and networks within geography and spatial sciences, the community of scholars engaged in the NSF's SBP initiative, and to other disciplinary networks. This project will catalyze the geography and spatial science community to contribute a sophisticated disciplinary perspective to an emerging SBP by exploring spatial characteristics, place-based phenomena, geographic dynamics, and other geographical concepts for "Geographies of Broadening Participation". The design of the program includes a unique, structured professional development framework in which senior and early-career scholars collaborate. It presents the opportunity to better engage the valuable perspective of geography and the spatial sciences among many other disciplines that are driving innovation and relevance in developing a SBP, leading to improved understanding that can guide actions by departments, universities, associations, and other educational and scientific agencies to enhance the state of diversity and inclusion within higher education. The research can potentially advance scientific understanding of the factors associated with broadening the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM and beyond. It received support to stimulate research related to the Science of Broadening Participation. This project was supported by the Geography and Spatial Sciences Program as part of the NSF Science of Broadening Participation inititiave.