MOVING THE WORK FORWARD: INSIGHTS FROM THE INSPIRING INNOVATION WORKSHOP

Two-year colleges (2YCs) enroll about 40% of U.S. undergraduates (AACC, 2022), including significant student populations from historically underrepresented groups in STEM. Although 2YCs are ideal sites for externally funded projects to improve undergraduate STEM education and STEM education research, faculty at these commonly Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) face barriers to proposal submission, participation in, and review of externally-funded grants (e.g., Wilson and Chavela Guerra, 2021; Gallo et al., 2022).

We convened a virtual workshop in Spring 2023, Inspiring Innovation: Two-Year College Geoscience Faculty as Agents of Change. The workshop sought to extend the reach of the SAGE 2YC: Faculty as Change Agents project, disseminating the work described in Catalyzing Change: STEM Faculty as Change Agents, which includes 15 chapters, 14 written by 2YC STEM faculty. The workshop provided STEM faculty opportunities to discuss ways to adopt, adapt, and implement changes in their instructional and professional practices; encouraged 2YC geoscience faculty to submit NSF and other grant proposals; and expanded the community of 2YC STEM faculty working as change agents. Workshop days 1-3 were facilitated by chapter authors and focused on themes of effective teaching; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and supporting students’ career and transfer paths. Days 4-5 included interactions with 2YC faculty with grant proposal experience and NSF Program Directors.

Workshop participants noted barriers to pursuing grants, including unfamiliarity with the grant process, insufficient institutional infrastructure to submit and manage external grants, and lack of value toward the promotion/tenure system. We will show examples of participant feedback that led to changes in weekly workshop design, share excerpts of participant action plans for changes to their professional practice, summarize results from workshop evaluations regarding participants’ interest in future grant involvement, and discuss the potential of this type of professional development to promote increased involvement by 2YC STEM faculty in change agent activities and external grant work.