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临时教职员工的劳动力公平问题来改善STEM教育，从而服务于国家利益。高校兼职教师占全国高校教师总数的69.5%。他们既包括兼职教师，也包括全职教师，他们是在终身教职之外被任命的。临时教师在本科生STEM教育中发挥着关键作用，在促进学生成功以及机构对多样性、公平和包容性的承诺方面具有巨大的潜力。改变教师的劳动条件以更好地支持临时教员，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。这一能力建设项目将提供一个关于临时教员在大学结构中的作用的示范自学。这项研究有可能深化和改变目前人们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)揭示制度模式和最佳实践，以实现不同教师队伍的公平STEM教育结果；以及(Iii)确定可推广到类似研究密集型机构的变革理论。本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，以确保临时教员提高STEM教育、教育公平和机构声誉。由于该项目的范围集中在系统性、变革性的变化上，项目团队将由终身教职和临时STEM教员、高层管理人员以及支持本科生教学和学习的工作人员组成。该项目将采用混合方法进行自我研究，包括机构数据分析和调查、访谈以及与教职员工和管理人员的焦点小组，以了解临时教职员工的劳动条件如何影响STEM教育。该项目将开展四项关键活动：1)评估建议院校影响临时教员劳动条件和看法的机构和个人因素；2)分析临时教员劳动条件对建议院校STEM教与学的影响；3)确定变革理论，为干预和研究密集型院校临时教师角色的体制转变提供框架；4)确定机构合作伙伴并与其合作，以通过自学奠定基础。该项目将提供有关临时教员在研究密集型机构中的代理和整合如何影响STEM成果的新信息，并解决在确保临时教员加强STEM教育所需的机构流程、结构、资源和政策方面的理解差距。将重点放在研究密集型的背景下，将把对临时教员对学生学习的影响的理解推进到一种在文献中受到较少关注的机构类型，尽管它在准备专业STEM劳动力方面发挥了关键作用。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的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转变和改进STEM教育的努力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.