NSF Award
2436940
This project aims to serve the national interest by recognizing, characterizing, and understanding professional development activities and strategies that will lead to positive cultural change and increased sense of belonging for individuals in the geosciences. This workshop will support the evolution of geoscience professional development programming, maximizing its utility and reach in meeting the current challenges related to broadening of opportunities and expanding participation of groups, institutions, and geographic regions that are underrepresented in the geosciences. It is designed to gain insight into ways that the National Association of Geoscience Teacher’s On the Cutting Edge, an existing geoscience education community of practice, can evolve professional development programming to be current and relevant and encourage leadership in the inclusive teaching space. Invited participants will represent a range of backgrounds and experience and include individuals (1) from groups that are underrepresented in the current community and (2) who serve as change agents through NSF-funded initiatives and programs. Planned workshop activities will support robust generation and synthesis of ideas and recommendations to guide future efforts.<br/><br/>The goal of this workshop is to begin the work of mapping out new directions for future professional development based on the lived experiences of geoscientists from historically excluded groups, as well as those who have experience working in institutional change in geoscience education. The workshop program and structure will employ best practices learned from the successful implementation of previous geoscience education professional development activities to convene an interactive workshop and provide significant opportunities for discussion and synthesis among participants. Discussions will be structured to elicit ideas and recommendations in each of four target areas 1) departmental culture 2) creating inclusive spaces 3) programmatic support for change efforts and 4) infrastructure support for sustaining programming. Recommendations produced during this workshop will guide future development and adaptation of sustainable programs to better cultivate a thriving, diverse geoscience community, and to increase valued programming for geoscience education research in creating a culture of belonging. The resulting synthesis and recommendations will be shared publicly and made available to practitioners across STEM fields. The NSF IUSE: EDU Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
