Search for: All records

This chapter presents research and evaluation results on the SAGE 2YC project's intentional focus on a cycle of change rooted in modeling evidence‐based pedagogies and facilitating change in teaching and leadership among faculty peers on multiple levels. Based on five years of qualitative and quantitative data involving 40 community colleges and 80 full‐time and adjunct STEM faculty, results showed that faculty change agents increased their use of evidence‐based teaching and faculty leadership roles. Changes in pedagogy contributed to improved course completion rates and reduced equity gaps between demographically diverse student groups. Carefully honed professional development strategies offered valuable lessons on supporting faculty learning, scaffolding and sharing lessons learned among faculty peers, and faculty leadership of campus reforms.

Objective/Research Question: This paper reports on data collected in a multi-year National Science Foundation grant project involving a professional development (PD) model built to support community college faculty as change agents (CAs). The research question was: How do disciplinary communities of practice (CoP) emerge among community college faculty working in teams? Methods: This research employed a mixed-method design. Data collection included interviews, focus-group sessions, reflective journals, observations, end-of-workshop evaluations, survey data with the 23 geoscience faculty CA, and data from a national survey. Data analysis used the principles of CoP. Results: When compared to other community college geoscience faculty nationally, the participants in our study reported greater levels of behaviors characteristic of CoP. The CoP emerged due to network building and resource sharing within the PD. The findings highlight the significance of structured PD on the development of robust disciplinary CoP. The initial orientation of CAs, existing institutional structures, and cultures of community colleges influenced the CoP. Putting lessons learned into practice, sharing outcomes, and leading regional PD for others contributed to strengthening of the CoP. Conclusions/Contributions: Intentional PD catalyzed the emergence of strong CoP among the community college geoscience faculty participants. The opportunities to connect with disciplinary colleagues teaching in community colleges who shared an interest in supporting student success and improving teaching practices and the opportunity to share lessons learned contributed to the CoP. Structured interactions, critical reflection, and leading colleagues in PD supported developing, maintaining, and growing the CoP.