Catalyzing Transformative Change in STEM Education through an Institute for Inclusive Pedagogy

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This project aims to serve the national interest by implementing an institutional change to broaden participation in STEM fields. A series of three annual five-week STEM Summer Institutes at MassBay Community College will aim to make significant, lasting, and positive changes in the way faculty teach students who identify as Black, Indigenous and/or people of color (BIPOC). The project will train a total of thirty STEM faculty and staff and include fifteen high school faculty from two regional high schools in the institution’s catchment area as well. Participants will learn how to better serve BIPOC STEM students. MassBay faculty will be mentored through implementation of revised classroom practices during the academic year. This project will help to address the problem that MassBay is retaining and graduating BIPOC STEM students at lower levels compared to their counterparts. The project will seek to impact faculty through professional development at MassBay and at regional high schools, thereby contributing, over time, to an increase in the diversity of students in the STEM pipeline and workforce.The goals of the project will be to (1) educate STEM faculty regarding BIPOC needs; (2) connect STEM faculty to resources to incorporate culturally inclusive pedagogy into their courses; (3) mentor those faculty; and (4) monitor faculty progress via professional, external evaluation. The method to be employed will be professional development that will emphasize culturally responsive pedagogy—pedagogy that requires faculty to understand how to incorporate multiple methods of instruction that are based on students’ life experiences and backgrounds. The project will focus on systemic institutional change in attitudes toward teaching BIPOC students that will be measured at the departmental and institutional levels, and across communities of STEM educators and/or educational researchers. As a result, over time, MassBay will recruit, support, and graduate more BIPOC students. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Institutional and Community Transformation track, the program supports efforts to transform and improve STEM education across institutions of higher education and disciplinary communities.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.