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1. How Many Hats Do You Wear: Building Research Capacity for STEM Faculty Development Workshop

   Lee, Dennis M.; Stefl, Shannon K.; Linder, Sandra; Lee, Cindy M.; Jamil, Faiza M.; High, Karen A. (June 2017, ASEE annual conference & exposition)

   Expectations for faculty members in the 21st century are high: Early career STEM faculty are expected to establish a sustainable research trajectory, a teaching practice, and a leadership role all while pursuing tenure success. Many colleges and universities have established faculty development programs, but there remains a deficiency in holistic professional support that integrates these disparate professional activities and aligns them with desired individual and institutional goals, especially for faculty in STEM. This paper will summarize an NSF funded workshop (NSF grant #EEC-1638888) designed to bring together multiple stakeholders in academia, government, and industry to begin to establish a research agenda for holistic STEM faculty development. This workshop was held February 17-18, 2017. 

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2. A Professional Development Program for Emerging STEM Education Researchers

   El-Adawy, S.; Hass, C.; Vasserman, E. Y.; Kustusch, M. B.; Franklin, S.; Sayre, E. C. (July 2023, 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   In this evidence-based practice paper, we discuss design rationale, implementation and evidence from a professional development program for emerging education researchers (PEER). Many STEM faculty, trained only in disciplinary research, transition into research on the teaching and learning side of their discipline, with transitions occurring after typical formal training opportunities (e.g. grad school, postdocs) are over. There are limited opportunities for professional development when starting education research, and options are highly dependent on home institution type, department priorities, and faculty career stage. The PEER program helps faculty at any institution jumpstart their transition into discipline-based education research. Our goal is to help foster the next generation of STEM education researchers. PEER participants develop quality research projects, engage in targeted experiential work to develop their projects and skills, and collaborate and form a long-term support community of peers, mentors and collaborators. Over the last 8 years, more than 1000 participants have engaged in PEER field schools worldwide. In this paper, we lay out the guiding principles of PEER: collaboration, responsiveness, communication, and playfulness. We situate the program within existing models for faculty professional development and describe the available modalities of PEER field schools: extended introductory in-person field schools (3-5 days), online or in-person gateway workshops (1.5 hours), and the new advanced in-person field schools (5 days). Each of these modalities is built off collaborative work among participants, blending development of foundational skills in education research with individual progress in their own specific education research projects. Drawing on evidence from interviews and surveys with STEM participants, we demonstrate the impact of different module activities on their professional skills, identity, and self-efficacy. We discuss the affordances and constraints of different formats and implications for faculty professional development. We prefer to present this work through a roundtable discussion, but we are also open to a lightning talk or a poster. 

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3. Professional development for STEM departments

   Flowers, L (July 2025, International Journal of Science and Research Archive)

   Professional development is a highly organized and valuable process designed to disseminate specialized knowledge and skills, thereby enhancing workforce efficiency and institutional alignment with the organization's strategic goals and mission. Typically, most professional development resources focus on supporting student retention and career readiness. Maintaining student success and providing programs that enable students to acquire job skills is paramount. However, implementing strong science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) faculty professional development systems is equally essential to achieving meaningful student outcomes and departmental operational success. Sustainable professional development strategies and faculty support mechanisms must be continually developed, measured, evaluated, and improved to ensure that faculty can meet the needs of STEM majors, the changing educational landscape, and the challenges facing academic institutions. A focus on increased faculty communication from department and executive administration, as well as continuing education opportunities, travel awards, occupational training, mentoring programs, and scholarship initiatives, offers beneficial opportunities to meet faculty professional development needs. The recommendations in this article are intended for STEM faculty but could be adopted for all faculty and modified for STEM department staff. 

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4. The impact of a multimodal professional network on developing social capital and research capacity of faculty at historically black colleges and universities

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11464-z  

   Ives, Jillian; Drayton, Brian; Hobbs, Kathryn; Falk, Joni (December 2022, Education and Information Technologies)

   Abstract This qualitative case study examined how a multimodal professional network environment (STEM for all Video Showcase) affected five STEM educational researchers’ capacity to engage in grant funded research at U.S. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Guided by the social capital and professional network literature as a conceptual framework, we analyzed data from surveys, interviews, and online discussion posts. We aimed to understand HBCU-based researchers’ supports and barriers in writing and/or conducting grant funded research in STEM education, and ways in which the multimodal professional network experience supported their research and professional networking, if at all. We found that organizational structures shaped participants’ social capital as well as their grant funded research activities. Further, participating in a multimodal professional network enabled participants to further develop their research capacity and to also expand their collegial networks. We offer recommendations for institutions to support the research endeavors of their faculty and suggest ways in which organizations using or developing professional multimodal networks can enhance faculty research development. 

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5. A Research Publication and Grant Preparation Program for Native American Faculty in STEM: Implementation of the Six R’s Indigenous Framework

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.734290  

   Grant, Anne D.; Swan, Katherine; Wu, Ke; Plenty Sweetgrass-She Kills, Ruth; Hill, Salena; Kinch, Amy (February 2022, Frontiers in Psychology)

   Faculty members in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines are typically expected to pursue grant funding and publish to support their research or teaching agendas. Providing effective professional development programs on grant preparation and management and on research publications is crucial. This study shares the design and implementation of such a program for Native STEM faculty (NAF-STEM) from two tribal colleges and one public, non-tribal, Ph.D. granting institution during a 3-year period. The overall development and implementation of the program is centered on the six R’s Indigenous framework – Respect, Relationship, Representation, Relevance, Responsibility, and Reciprocity. The role of NAF-STEM and their interactions with the program, as members of the community formed by their participation, impacted the program. Their practices and the program co-emerged over time, each providing structure and meaning for the other. Through such reciprocity, NAF-STEM and the program research team continually refined the program through their mutual engagement. They took on the shared responsibility of the program while they participated in and shaped its practices. The process and results of formative and summative assessment and the impact of COVID-19 on the program are reported. Results of the program offer lessons on the implementation of six R’s framework in professional development at institutions of higher education. 

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