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In response to the well-documented themes of unique challenges URM doctoral student experience (tokenism, stereotyping, microaggressions, etc.), faculty mentoring remains an especially critical resource to change the trajectory for URM students in graduate education. The purpose of this study is to examine the frst two years of change in institutional culture which will increase the number of URM doctoral students who pursue the STEM professoriate. The primary research question asked is “Can a focus on developing and mentoring faculty catalyze change in the culture and practices of their doctoral programs to increase faculty diversity?” Based on the idea that faculty are drivers of lasting institutional change, three diverse public universities collaborate to adapt and implement an institutional change project, called “AGEP-NC Alliance: A Change Model for Doctoral to Faculty Diversity in STEM,” that prioritizes cultural frameworks for deep change in postsecondary education (Gumpertz et al., 2019). Key model components include faculty learning communities; use of national faculty mentoring networks; and use of institutional diversity data. Culturally relevant mentoring is among several approaches of interest to STEM reformers to shift the focus to institutional-level change and not student defciencies. Operationalized as “cultural integrity,” the approach calls upon students’ racial and ethnic backgrounds as assets for reform in pedagogies and learning activities, while valuing those backgrounds as critical ingredients for acquiring academic capital and career success (Tierney, 1999). Kezar’s (2018) cultural framework for institutional change emphasizes knowledge formation in context as well as analysis of espoused meaning and values organizational members maintain. The researchers present the AGEP-NC Alliance as a narrative, rich case study and collaborative mentoring model, an approach allowing participant researchers to detail sustained data use in collaborative social interaction (Patton, 1990). Results will be shared that highlight faculty as cultural change agents, and organizational learning as a cultural process. Preliminary results show evidence of institutional change at several levels from classroom and laboratory practices to key departmental policies.
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This content will become publicly available on September 4, 2026
Formative Evaluation on Faculty Participation in Instructional Change Initiatives in Undergraduate Chemistry
In STEM disciplines, there has been a growing emphasis on implementing instructional changes in undergraduate education to enhance student success. Despite collecting different types of data, there are few applications of mid-project formative evaluations in instructional reform projects to explore faculty members' perceptions and interactions as change agents. This study conducted a formative evaluation focusing on a group of faculty participants involved in a project as part of a faculty learning community aimed at revising the chemistry curriculum at a public urban U.S. university, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Using interview data, this study revealed that faculty participants in the reform project perceived their interactive involvement, as well as environmental changes and diverse student needs, as facilitators for their instructional improvement. Additionally, based on department-wide survey measures related to departmental culture and discussion networks for undergraduate education change, faculty participants in the reform efforts had more favorable perceptions of departmental culture about making changes and higher centrality scores within departmental discussion networks compared to their peer faculty members. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to future project implementation and faculty development as change agents.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2111446
- PAR ID:
- 10634233
- Editor(s):
- Holme, Thomas A
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Chemical Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Chemical Education
- Edition / Version:
- 1
- Volume:
- 102
- ISSN:
- 0021-9584
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Faculty Learning Community, Formative Evaluation, Undergraduate Education, Social Network Analysis
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Other: pdf
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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