DEVELOPING A DIVERSE PROFESSORIATE: FINDINGS FROM A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP FOR FUTURE AND EARLY-CAREER UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITY GEOSCIENCE FACULTY

In early April 2012, the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) and the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) hosted a professional development workshop for early-career and future faculty from underrepresented minority groups in the geosciences. We had 27 participants attend the 2.5-day workshop in the Washington DC metro area.

There were five, 3-hour sessions to help early-career faculty in their professional development including topics on professional societies, teaching methods, federal agencies and campus leadership. Informal participant feedback indicated the workshop was valuable and successful. Notably, as part of the professional societies session, participants discussed networking opportunities the workshop presented and how these connections foster potential collaborations during their academic careers. These networking opportunities established a small community for underrepresented minority faculty who feel isolated at their institutions, as well as alleviate the intimidation felt during large national meetings. A brief discussion during this session about barriers indicated that few experienced many inhibiting barriers during their geoscience career. In fact, one participant felt that her minority status was an advantage because other scientists can easily recognize her and thus remember her research.

Our “Instructional Guidance” session introduced participants to inquiry-based teaching techniques. Many participants had only a surficial understanding of what inquiry-based teaching means and in some cases, it was difficult to convey its importance to those participants who have heavy research-based priorities. One primary concern about adapting an inquiry-based teaching model was the risk of low student evaluations, which could be detrimental to those who are up for tenure. Despite the difficulty in integrating these techniques, many found the “On the Cutting Edge” resources valuable.

In addition, preliminary results from our formal evaluation indicate each of the five sessions was deemed “valuable” and “effective” by participants. Participants’ familiarity with federal agencies and their confidence in writing successful grant applications showed statistically significant improvement when comparing pre- and post-Likert survey data.