Scholarly Leaders Originating as Practicing Educators in Two-Year College Mathematics (Project SLOPE)

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Two-year colleges maintain a central and rapidly expanding role in the development of the scientific and technical workforce specifically, as well as of a well-educated citizenry. Current efforts in two-year college mathematics targeted towards increasing student success and accelerating student progression have provided momentum for improvement. Two-year college faculty are uniquely positioned to provide insight into the varieties of prior mathematical experiences and practical understandings that their students bring to classrooms and thus can play a central and meaningful role in the development of the education research base needed to inform and support lasting improvement. Crucially, research conducted by practitioners for practitioners holds the promise of immediate relevance and great impact for the development and growth of empirically-based improvement efforts. Unfortunately, for a variety of systemic reasons, there has been a dearth of such research by community college faculty for community college contexts. This exploratory project will provide the foundation for developing two-year college mathematics faculty researchers engaged in classroom inquiry through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). SoTL has been demonstrated to be a transformative practice of simultaneous knowledge generation, professional development, and teaching and learning advancement in postsecondary education, but has not been comprehensively examined within the unique contexts of two-year college mathematics. This project will address the research gap surrounding two-year college mathematics faculty SoTL research by first conducting a critical analysis and synthesis of existing programming and the literature base that focuses on the intersection of SoTL, two-year college faculty research, and mathematics education research in postsecondary contexts. Central to this inquiry will be an examination of the relationship between faculty researcher needs and the structures of two-year colleges. Following this needs, barriers, and opportunities analysis, the results will be used to develop and implement a pilot national program initiative to engage two-year college mathematics faculty in SoTL research. The pilot program will be a fifteen-month comprehensive faculty association with the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges that provides training in SoTL, as well as support in undertaking this scholarship and in navigating the structures of two-year colleges that might pose challenges to engaging in SoTL. In this pilot program, six two-year college mathematics faculty will implement a SoTL project in their classroom and plan for the dissemination of the results. The pilot will be evaluated to refine its design to meet the needs of participants and to allow for future expansion of the program and related programs.