Identity (net)working to Support Under-represented STEM Students

The first stage of our project involved creating a survey and distributing it to members of a Womens’ Physicists Group (pseudonym) which included physics students, physics faculty and one administrator. The survey was used to evaluate members’ experiences, motivation of participation and the network connections they made.

We administered the questionnaire using LimeSurvey and included questions about who they go to for advice or discussions regarding their physics research and regarding equity issues. The most challenging aspects of this stage of the research was trying to get participation from individuals during the summer months. The other challenge included the time required to learn the ins and outs of using a new survey platform – LimeSurvey

The next phase of this project will involve interviewing faculty. Faculty will be invited to answer questions and invited to construct their own network using paper and pencil to place alters at perceived relational proximity from themselves on a sociogram consisting of a suite of concentric circles. Participants will be asked specifically about who they speak with about research and equity.

These themes were chosen because they emerged as the most salient issues from the preliminary analysis of the survey. The video and audio-recorded interviews will provide qualitative data to aid in establishing explanations for the qualitative SNA findings and a means of checking the results of the qualitative findings related to SNA.

So far, we have learned a few lessons that will help us to answer our project question. Our research question is the following:

How do the network positions of university instructors foster or inhibit their access to recognition regarding equitable practices?

Our preliminary findings suggest that when faculty have access to relationships with students through the Womens’ Physicist Group opportunities arise for the brokering of diverse perspectives to foster equity. (Please see file on deliverables for more information.)

So far, we have observed the brokering activities of a faculty member whose involvement in the Womens’ Physicists Group appears to be contributing to the fostering of a counter-space. This counter-space appears to be providing students with access to key resources to support their identity work as female physicists.

We presented our preliminary findings at the SALTISE conference in June.

Increasing the number of under-represented students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is imperative for furthering Canadian innovation and productivity by increasing the diversity of ideas, experiences and perspectives in STEM fields. The proposed project will collect evidence regarding resources accessed by university instructors to promote more equitable education practices in STEM.

By exploring the networking activity and network structures that support university instructors’ development of equitable practices this study will address the following question: How do the network positions of university instructors foster or inhibit their access to recognition regarding their equitable teaching practices?

This study will thus examine the resources available to instructors through social interactions and the influence of these resources on the development of equitable teaching identities. Participants of this study will be 10 STEM faculty members. Participating faculty will be recruited from the department of Physics, and the Faculty of Engineering – disciplines where women and other minoritized students are historically under-represented. Data collection will focus on their networks within and beyond the boundaries of their faculty.

Data will be collected at two time points: first, from a survey emphasizing social networks faculty draw on when designing courses and seeking out support for equitable instruction. The SNA survey will use a fixed-choice bounded approach for collecting network data and analysed using UCINET. Second, after the first survey is administered, participants will be interviewed using semi-structured interviews focussed on teaching practices and their perspectives on equity and inclusion. Research ethics approval for this study has already been obtained.

This research will be of value to those engaged in faculty development and professional learning communities in STEM disciplines. It will give insight into the development of practices for equitable STEM education at post-secondary level. It is expected this study will generate insights for SALTISE’s community of educators, funders of equity STEM programs, and the wider research community.

As this is a research proposal, data will be analyzed through UCINET using social network analysis metrics, and qualitative data will be analyzed thematically to assess how social networks can support faculty identities as equity-minded STEM instructors. Results will be presented at conferences and workshops and will be submitted for peer-review.

The funds from this project will be used to hire a research assistant to conduct the data collection and analysis. Research assistant will take the lead on collecting data related to this research question, and will assist in analysis and production of conference presentations/workshops and one peer-reviewed article for submission to a higher education journal.

Research team will present results at SALTISE and at McGill in the months of June and July.