Supporting HSI STEM Departments to Achieve Transformative Inclusion in Undergraduate STEM Education

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With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program, this Track 1 project aims to increase the participation and success of STEM students, particularly Hispanic students, by transforming STEM department cultures. In this way, the project plans to address the persistent under-representation of Hispanic students in STEM. To accomplish these goals, the project will develop, test, and publish a two-year departmental equity transformation pathway. This pathway will include workshops and exploration of factors that contribute to Hispanic under-representation in STEM, such as stereotype threat and implicit bias. The pathway will introduce faculty to culturally responsive pedagogies. The project will support the collaborative implementation of high impact practices in gateway STEM courses to increase students' sense of belonging in STEM fields. The collaboration will include teamwork and iterative course improvements through Lesson Study, a teacher-led research and observation protocol to improve student learning. The work will include a review of institutional barriers and opportunities to increase STEM students' connections to campus resources. The aims of the project are to develop programming that will assist HSI STEM departments to improve student experiences and outcomes in STEM, and to advance understanding of the effects of department-level work to increase equity and inclusion of all students. The project will support implementation of practices known to reduce experiences of marginalization, especially of Hispanic students, and will examine the impacts of department-wide implementation of culturally responsive pedagogy on students' persistence, success, and sense of belonging in STEM. Research methods include interviews, student and faculty focus groups, student surveys, and collection/analysis of student success data such as persistence and graduation. Anticipated results include implementation of department-level interventions that improve students’ success in STEM and development of a greater understanding about how to support the success of Hispanic students in STEM. The project will directly improve the STEM learning experience of at least 2000 students per year at Sonoma State University. In addition, it has the potential for broader impact at other institutions that implement the published pathway. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.