A Self-Study of Contingent Faculty and their Impact on Undergraduate STEM Education at a Research-Intensive Institution

该项目旨在通过解决偶然的教师劳动公平问题来改善STEM教育，从而为国家利益服务。预备役教师占全国高等教育教学队伍的69.5%。他们包括兼职和全职教师，他们是在终身教职之外被任命的。临时教师在本科STEM教育中发挥着关键作用，在促进学生成功以及对多样性、公平和包容性的机构承诺方面具有巨大潜力。改变教师的劳动条件，以更好地支持后备教师，特别是在研究密集型机构，对于教育日益多样化的人口和提供公平的STEM教育至关重要。这个能力建设项目将为大学结构中临时教员的作用提供一个自我研究的模型。这项研究有可能加深和改变目前对大学教师角色的理解。项目成果包括：(i)确定一套可复制的制度变革，以加强STEM教育；（ii）揭示机构模式和最佳实践，以实现多元化教师队伍的公平STEM教育成果；（iii）确定一种可以推广到类似研究密集型机构的变革理论。该项目的目标是使用扎根的理论方法来确定研究密集型机构如何改变组织结构，流程和政策，以确保应急教师加强STEM教育，教育公平和机构声誉。由于该项目的范围侧重于系统性的转型变革，项目团队将由终身和临时STEM教师、高层管理人员和支持本科教学的工作人员组成。该项目将开展一项自我研究，采用混合方法，包括机构数据分析和调查、访谈以及与教师和管理人员的焦点小组，以了解临时教师的劳动条件如何影响STEM教育。该项目将涉及四个关键活动：1)评估提议机构的制度和个人因素，这些因素会影响偶然的教师劳动条件和看法；2)临时教师劳动条件对提议机构STEM教与学的影响分析；3)确定一种变革理论，该理论为研究密集型机构中偶然教师角色的干预和制度转型提供了框架；4)确定并与机构合作伙伴合作，在自学奠定的基础上继续发展。该项目将提供有关研究密集型机构中临时教师机构和整合如何影响STEM成果的新信息，并解决在理解确保临时教师加强STEM教育所需的制度流程、结构、资源和政策方面的差距。对研究密集型背景的关注将促进对临时教师对学生学习影响的理解，这是一种机构类型，尽管在准备专业STEM劳动力方面发挥着关键作用，但在文献中受到的关注较少。NSF IUSE: EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。通过机构和社区转型轨道，该计划支持高等教育机构和学科社区的STEM教育转型和改善。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to serve the national interest by addressing contingent faculty labor equity to improve STEM education. Contingent faculty comprise 69.5% of higher education instructional faculty nationwide. They include both part-time and full-time faculty who are appointed off the tenure track. Contingent faculty play a critical role in undergraduate STEM education and hold great potential for advancing student success as well as institutional commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Transforming faculty labor conditions to better support contingent faculty, particularly at research-intensive institutions, is critical for educating an increasingly diverse population and providing equitable STEM education. This Capacity Building project will offer a model self-study of the role of contingent faculty within university structures. The study has potential to deepen and transform current understandings of faculty roles at the university. Project outcomes include: (i) identifying a replicable set of institutional changes that enhance STEM education; (ii) revealing institutional models and best practices for achieving equitable STEM educational outcomes with a diverse faculty workforce; and (iii) identifying a theory of change that will be generalizable to similar research-intensive institutions.The goal of this project is to use a grounded theory approach to identify how research-intensive institutions can transform organizational structures, processes, and policies to ensure that contingent faculty enhance STEM education, educational equity, and institutional reputation. As the project’s scope focuses on systemic, transformational change, the project team will consist of both tenured and contingent STEM faculty, upper administration, and staff who support undergraduate teaching and learning. The project will conduct a self-study that employs a mixed method approach, including institutional data analysis and surveys, interviews, and focus groups with faculty and administrators, to understand how the labor conditions of contingent faculty affect STEM education. The project will engage in four key activities: 1) an assessment of the institutional and individual factors at the proposing institution that affect contingent faculty labor conditions and perceptions; 2) an analysis of the impact of contingent faculty labor conditions on STEM teaching and learning at the proposing institution; 3) identification of a theory of change that provides a framework for interventions and institutional transformation of the contingent faculty role at research-intensive institutions; and 4) identification of and collaboration with an institutional partner to build upon the foundation laid through the self-study. This project will yield new information on how contingent faculty agency and integration in research-intensive institutions affect STEM outcomes and address a gap in understanding of the institutional processes, structures, resources, and policies necessary to ensure that contingent faculty enhance STEM education. Focus on the research-intensive context will advance understanding of the impact of contingent faculty on student learning to an institutional type that has received less attention in the literature despite a critical role in preparation of the professional STEM labor force. 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.