ODEI Spotlight: Cultivating Equity-Focused Institutional Change in University STEM Departments

Discipline-based education research has made great strides in understanding how to foster more equitable and effective teaching in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). However, there still has yet to be widespread adoption of reforms in university STEM departments. Our project seeks to understand how departments can implement sustainable, large-scale changes to undergraduate education. While these changes take many forms, they are grounded in six core principles, including upholding a commitment to equity, inclusion, and justice. We facilitate Departmental Action Teams (DATs), teams of faculty, students, and staff within a single STEM department working on some issue related to undergraduate education. During this talk, I will present an overview of the DAT model and the principles which guide our work. I will then present some empirical research discussing how to meaningfully develop student-staff-faculty partnerships while implementing departmental changes. Finally, I will discuss the multifaceted nature of complex equity-focused changes.

At 3:00 pm on Thursday, April 1, there will be an opportunity for grad students and post docs to join a discussion with Dr Quan. The discussion will use the same zoom link as the lecture.

Full zoom link: https://upenn.zoom.us/j/96987577706?pwd=aEZDL3pKQkNYWXRnT2V1czE3alZxUT09

Meeting ID: 969 8757 7706

Passcode: 968501

Please contact us, penn.dip@gmail.com with any questions.