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1. Collaboration and Gender Equity among Academic Scientists

   Misra, Joya; Smith-Doerr, Laurel; Dasgupta, Nilanjana; Weaver, Gabriela; Normanly, Jennifer (January 2017, Social sciences)

   Universities were established as hierarchical bureaucracies that reward individual attainment in evaluating success. Yet collaboration is crucial both to 21st century science and, we argue, to advancing equity for women academic scientists. We draw from research on gender equity and on collaboration in higher education, and report on data collected on one campus. Sixteen focus group meetings were held with 85 faculty members from STEM departments, separated by faculty rank and gender (i.e., assistant professor men, full professor women). Participants were asked structured questions about the role of collaboration in research, career development, and departmental decision-making. Inductive analyses of focus group data led to the development of a theoretical model in which resources, recognition, and relationships create conditions under which collaboration is likely to produce more gender equitable outcomes for STEM faculty. Ensuring women faculty have equal access to resources is central to safeguarding their success; relationships, including mutual mentoring, inclusion and collegiality, facilitate women’s careers in academia; and recognition of collaborative work bolsters women’s professional advancement. We further propose that gender equity will be stronger in STEM where resources, relationships, and recognition intersect—having multiplicative rather than additive effects. Keywords: collaboration; gender equity; academic STEM careers 

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2. Science education with multilingual learners: Equity as access and equity as transformation

   https://doi.org/10.1002/sce.21791  

   Grapin, Scott E.; Pierson, Ashlyn; González‐Howard, María; Ryu, Minjung; Fine, Caitlin; Vogel, Sara (July 2023, Science Education)

   Research in science education with multilingual learners (MLs) has expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion can be situated within a larger dialogue about what it means to provide minoritized students with an equitable education. Whereas some conceptions of equity focus on ensuring all students have access to the knowledge, practices, and language normatively valued in K‐12 schools (equity as access), increasingly prominent conceptions focus on transforming those knowledge, practices, and language in ways that center minoritized students and their communities (equity as transformation). In this article, we argue that conceptions of equity provide a useful lens for understanding emerging research in science education with MLs and for charting a research agenda. We begin by tracing how conceptions of equity have evolved in parallel across STEM and multilingual education. Then, we provide an overview of recent developments from demographic, theoretical, and policy perspectives. In the context of these developments, we provide a conceptual synthesis of emerging research by our team of early‐career scholars in three areas: (a) learning, (b) assessment, and (c) teacher education. Within each area, we unpack the research efforts in terms of how they attend to equity as access while pushing toward equity as transformation. Finally, we propose a research agenda for science education with MLs that builds on and extends these efforts. We close by offering recommendations for making this research agenda coherent and impactful: (a) being explicit about our conceptions of equity, (b) paying attention to the interplay of structure and agency, and (c) promoting interdisciplinary collaboration. 

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3. Availing orientations and facilitating behaviors: An emerging framework for change

   Laursen, Sandra; Rasmussen, Chris (December 2024, Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education)

   Cook, S; Katz, B; Moore-Russo, D (Ed.)

   Scholars and practitioners in higher education recognize that transformational change of organizations—especially departments and institutions—is difficult but essential to achieve needed, national-scale improvements in access, quality and equity in STEM instruction and career development. Based on studies of change projects in college mathematics education and gender equity on STEM faculties, we identify and describe a suite of common leadership approaches among change agents who led these projects. We propose that these approaches function as constructs for an emerging framework about change leadership. By observing how change agents lead complex change projects in higher education, we seek to develop theory about leadership for organizational change and to offer practical guidance to such leaders. 

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4. Calling for Equity-focused Quantitative Methodology in Discipline-based Education Research: An Introduction to Latent Class Analysis

   https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.24-01-0023  

   Slominski, Tara; Odeleye, Oluwatobi O; Wainman, Jacob W; Walsh, Lisa L; Nylund-Gibson, Karen; Ing, Marsha (December 2024, CBE—Life Sciences Education)

   Eddy, Sarah (Ed.)

   We introduce latent class analysis, a mixture modeling method that can explicitly model unobserved heterogeneity in a population. We provide examples of how this method could be applied to STEM education research as a means to analyze quantitative data while pursuing research goals aligned with equity, inclusion, access, and justice agendas. 

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5. Refining a DEI Assessment Tool for Use in Optimizing Professional STEM Societies for Gender Equity

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2022.755372  

   Leibnitz, G.M.; Peters, J.W.; Campbell-Montalvo, R.; Metcalf, H.; Lucy Putwen, A.; Gillian-Daniel, D.L.; Sims, E.L.; Segarra, V.A. (June 2022, Frontiers in sociology)

   Historic science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplinary cultures were founded in a system that was predominately male, white, heterosexual, and able-bodied (i.e., “majority”). Some societal norms have changed, and so has demand for inclusive STEM engagement. However, legacy mental models, or deeply held beliefs and assumptions, linger and are embedded in the STEM system and disciplinary cultures. STEM reform is needed to maximize talent and create inclusive professions, but cannot be achieved without recognizing and addressing norms and practices that disproportionately serve majority vs. minoritized groups. As leading voices in disciplinary work and application, disciplinary and professional societies (Societies) are instrumental in shaping and sustaining STEM norms. We, leaders of the Amplifying the Alliance to Catalyze Change for Equity in STEM Success (ACCESS+) project, recognize the need to provide Society diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) change leaders with tools necessary to foster systemic change. In this Perspectives article, we present the Equity Environmental Scanning Tool (EEST) as an aid to help Society DEI change leaders elucidate legacy mental models, discern areas of strength, identify foci for advancement, and benchmark organizational change efforts. We share our rationale and work done to identify, and, ultimately, adapt a Society DEI self-assessment tool from the United Kingdom. We share background information on the UK tool, content and structural changes made to create the EEST, and an overview of the resulting EEST. Ultimately, we seek to increase awareness of a Society-specific DEI self-assessment tool designed to help Society DEI change leaders advance inclusive reform. 

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