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Multi‐institutional educational partnerships are a promising approach to developing the skilled technical workforce. Inexorably, the ability to maintain such partnership networks that support skilled technical workforce education was disrupted by COVID‐19. The purpose of this study is to explore Southwest Virginia's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)‐focused multi‐institutional partnership networks, to inventory the disruptive impacts of COVID‐19, and to identify how partnership stakeholders navigated these challenges to prepare students for the skilled technical workforce. This work presents a single‐case study design, highlighting the evolving landscape of STEM workforce education partnership networks in Southwest Virginia throughout the pandemic. The team conducted interviews with 19 regional stakeholders focused on the participants' role throughout the pandemic, barriers to STEM workforce education presented by public health and economic factors, and innovative strategies to sustain and expand partnership networks through COVID‐19. Two key themes emerged from this study: successful partners maintained network connections through adaptive interactions and actors within the network served as brokers to leverage their connections and expand partnerships in the face of adversity. By taking a contextual view of the role of partnership networks in creating equitable STEM workforce pathways during COVID‐19, we develop rich insights into partnership formation, collaboration, resource allocation, and programming amidst challenges to their success.

 

This work in progress paper in the research to practice category identifies trends in how middle school youth from rural schools conceptualize failure after engaging in engineering-related learning activities. These trends inform better strategies that can be used in the PEERS, Partnering with Educators and Engineers in Rural Schools, program to ensure the goals of the program are met. The PEERS program moves beyond single exposure activities by engaging students in approximately six engineering-related learning activities throughout the year. This program partners researchers, teachers and local industry representatives aiming to (1) challenge misperceptions and create relevant conceptions of engineering; (2) maintain and expand situational interest; and, (3) integrate with individual interests, values, and social identities. Since failure is an integral part of the learning experience, students' conceptions of failure can influence the way students interact in these activities and the outcomes they experience from this program. Interviews were conducted with 38 students across the three rural communities involved in the PEERS program on their perceptions of failure. This paper presents two themes that emerged from initial coding of the interviews and explains how these themes will be used to inform future decisions for PEERS.