Collaborative Research: AGEP Transformation Alliance: CIRTL AGEP - Improved Academic Climate for STEM Dissertators and Postdocs to Increase Interest in Faculty Careers

Iowa State University, Boston University, Cornell University, Howard University, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, University of Buffalo, University of Georgia, University of Maryland College Park, and University of Texas at Arlington will collaborate to develop, build and test the impact of a model of a 'networked improvement community' focused on improving dissertator experiences at a variety of institutions with the goal of reducing the effect of negative climate on interest in faculty careers. The project was submitted in response to the NSF's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program solicitation (NSF 16-552). The AGEP program seeks to advance knowledge about models to improve pathways to the professoriate and success of historically underrepresented minority (URM) students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty in specific STEM disciplines and/or STEM education research fields. AGEP Transformation Alliances develop or replicate/reproduce, implement and study, via integrated educational/social science research, models to transform the dissertator phase of doctoral education, postdoctoral training and/or faculty advancement, and the transitions within and across the pathway levels, of URMs in STEM and/or STEM education research careers.

The project includes activities to address faculty and postdoc behavior and knowledge about mentoring, advising, and mitigating implicit bias and micro-aggressions as well as activities to support dissertators through workshops similar to faculty workshops, building cohorts and peer mentoring. A super-structure of the ten alliance members will work together to produce and share information and disseminate change more broadly. Evaluation will be done by a team from Michigan State University led by Dr. Marilyn Amey. Integrated research is built into the collaborative process as the community will go through four plan-do-study-act cycles to share information about interventions, plan improvements, coordinate evaluation, and spread effective interventions through first the collaboration and then disseminate them to the 46 institution CIRTL network. Research questions will address 1) student descriptions of engagement with their departments and disciplines, 2) which experiences and relationships are most influential in strengthening students' interest in faculty careers, and 3) how peers and external supports influence sense of community for dissertators. Along with testing the impact of a variety of interventions at nine institutions on the transition from dissertators to faculty and on the climate experienced by dissertators, the project will evaluate the impact of the network itself through a social network analysis, semi-structured interviews, and qualitative analysis of local and community meeting records.