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Inclusive STEM teaching learning community facilitator survey data

Data files

Aug 12, 2024 version files 259.71 KB

Abstract

Inclusive teaching requires more than good intentions; it is an ongoing commitment to learning, reflecting, and making equitable and inclusive changes to pedagogical practices and curriculum to support all students. This paper examines a professional development program designed to advance the awareness, self-efficacy, and ability of STEM educators to cultivate inclusive learning environments for all their students and to develop themselves as reflective, inclusive practitioners. Specifically, we examine how this training model impacted learning community facilitator self-reported confidence and practices in facilitating an inclusive teaching learning community. 

This mixed methods study reports on survey data from project trained facilitators (n=71) collected over four course runs. Quantitative results indicate that facilitators reported significant increases in confidence, with the largest effect sizes occurring in areas of facilitation related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and identity. Additionally, significant increases were reported across all levels of prior DEI experience. Qualitative findings indicate that the program training model effectively aligned facilitators to project-defined inclusive facilitation approaches. Facilitators also reported significant utilization of the Facilitator Workbook to support learning community (LC) facilitation, benefitted from our co-facilitation structure, and increased their inclusive facilitation skills through the act of LC facilitation.

This inclusive teaching program has demonstrated that professional development in inclusive teaching, and by extension in other equity and diversity topics, can be successfully done at a national scale by centering identity, power, and positionality while upholding ‘do no harm.’ Further, the program has shown that dissemination through project-trained facilitators of local LCs can be successful across a wide range of institutional and disciplinary contexts. This paper provides a strategy for how DEI-focused faculty development efforts can select, train, and support facilitators on a national scale while maintaining high fidelity to project goals.