ADVANCE Partnership: Faculty Online Learning Communities for Gender Equity, Targeting Department Level Change in STEM

性别平等教师在线学习社区：针对STEM（FOLC-E）项目的部门级变化提供了一个独特而宝贵的机会，以了解与STEM教师性别不平等相关的部门级结构和文化。该项目通过调查部门环境的特点，解决了改善STEM部门文化，实践和结构的迫切需要。该项目将聘请代表每个FOLC-E组5-7个部门的教师团队。作为该项目的直接结果，跨多个STEM学科的25至45个部门将做出重大的部门级改变，解决不平等问题，可能影响数千名学生和教师。该项目促进STEM部门内部公平性提高的潜力将大大改善教育场所，许多学生认为他们来自STEM学习和工作中代表性不足的群体。 合作伙伴包括万花筒项目（PKAL），这是一个由来自150多所高等教育机构的4，000多名STEM教师组成的全国联盟，旨在传播赠款和PULSE（本科生生命科学教育合作伙伴关系）的信息，该联盟最初由NSF，HHMI和NIGMS/NIH资助，现在是一个教育非营利组织。该项目将通过实施和研究五项FOLC-E，为STEM领域的跨部门性别平等改革工作提供信息。就业机会机会管理办法是一个利用社会学习和支助来增进部门间两性平等的机制。它植根于教师学习社区（FLC），实践社区（CoP）和部门行动小组（DAT）的概念。 在实践社区中，具有共同兴趣的人们聚集在一起，以学习，知识生成和共享以及协作的精神实现个人和团体目标。教师团队将与FOLC-E促进者，跨部门性别平等专家和行政导师合作，深入了解不平等的权力动态过程。他们将与造成不平等的结构接触，这些结构可以用来在其部门内实施改革。团队将利用组织变革的既定理论制定变革行动计划，并在FOLC-E的支持和鼓励下制定计划。FOLC-E小组将利用数据评估其努力的影响和成功，并完善未来的行动计划。FOLC-E干预的研究将导致有关的组织和文化因素，既创造了障碍和机会的系统性changes.The NSF ADVANCE方案的新知识，旨在促进性别平等，通过重点识别和消除组织障碍，阻碍了充分参与和学术机构的不同教师的进步。阻碍公平的组织障碍可能存在于政策、流程、做法以及组织文化和氛围中。 ADVANCE“合作伙伴”奖为那些扩大基于证据的系统性变革战略以提高STEM教师区域或国家性别平等的项目提供支持。该奖项反映了NSF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。

The Faculty Online Learning Communities for Gender Equity: Targeting Departmental Level Change in STEM (FOLC-E) project offers a unique and valuable opportunity to understand department level structures and culture related to STEM faculty gender inequity. This project addresses the critical need to improve the cultures, practices, and structures of STEM departments by investigating features of the departmental setting. This project will engage teams of faculty representing 5-7 departments per FOLC-E group. As a direct result of this project, twenty-five to forty-five departments, across multiple STEM disciplines, will make a significant department level change addressing inequity, potentially impacting thousands of students and faculty. The potential of this project to promote increased equity within STEM departments will substantially improve the educational places where many of the students that identify as being from groups that are underrepresented in STEM study and work. Partners include the Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) a national alliance of over 4,000 STEM faculty from over 150 institutions of higher education to disseminate information from the grant and PULSE (Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education) which was initially funded by NSF, HHMI and NIGMS/NIH and is now an educational non-profit organization. The project will inform intersectional gender equity reform efforts in STEM by implementing and studying five FOLC-Es. FOLC-E is a mechanism for increasing intersectional gender equity that leverages social learning and support. It is grounded in the concepts of faculty learning communities (FLC), communities of practice (CoP), and departmental action teams (DATs). In a community of practice, people with a common interest come together to fulfill both individual and group goals in a spirit of learning, knowledge generation and sharing, and collaboration. Teams of faculty will work with FOLC-E facilitators, intersectional gender equity experts, and administrative mentors to engage in a process of deeply understanding the power dynamics of inequity. They will engage structures that contribute to inequity that can be leveraged to enact reforms within their departments. Teams will create an action plan for change, utilizing established theories of organizational change, and enact their plans with the support and encouragement of the FOLC-E. The FOLC-E groups will use data to assess the impact and success of their efforts and refine future plans for action. A study of the FOLC-E intervention will result in new knowledge about the organizational and cultural factors that create both barriers to and opportunities for systemic change.The NSF ADVANCE program is designed to foster gender equity through a focus on the identification and elimination of organizational barriers that impede the full participation and advancement of diverse faculty in academic institutions. Organizational barriers that inhibit equity may exist in policies, processes, practices, and the organizational culture and climate. ADVANCE "Partnership" awards provide support for projects that scale-up evidence based systemic change strategies to enhance gender equity for STEM faculty regionally or nationally.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.