ASCN Blog
Change Topics (Working Groups)
Target Audience
- College/University Staff 43 matches
- First Generation College Students 1 match
- First-year College Students 1 match
- Graduate Students 11 matches
- In-Service K12 Teachers 6 matches
- Institution Administration 48 matches
- Non-tenure Track Faculty 43 matches
- Post-doctoral Fellows 13 matches
- Pre-Service K12 Teachers 2 matches
- Teaching/Learning Assistants 7 matches
- Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty 48 matches
- Transfer Students 1 match
- Undergraduate Majors 1 match
- Undergraduate Non-Majors 1 match
- Underrepresented Minority Students 1 match
Happy National Mentoring Month!
Target Audience: Post-doctoral Fellows, Graduate Students, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, College/University Staff, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty
Program Components: Supporting Students:Mentoring Program, Professional Development:Advising and Mentoring, Diversity/Inclusion
Since Odysseus left Mentor in charge of his family, estates, and his son, the art and science of mentoring has been critical to guiding career and educational development. Like Mentor, I aim to be a wise and trusted counselor, guide, guardian, and teacher or as the title of a widely read book indicates, an Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend (National Academies of Sciences, 1997). I have learned that mentoring is an alliance between people and that both mentors and mentees benefit from agreements about how the relationship will evolve and how to include social support, career development, and growth. With faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates, mentoring often involves getting to know the whole person, their aims and aspirations, and their qualms about the future. Connecting students to the right resources or empowering them to bring up difficult questions with their faculty or research mentors requires that you be open, listen carefully, and know them as persons. More
Open Education as a lever for social justice and equity - Exploring the many on ramps of Open STEM education
Target Audience: Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, College/University Staff
Program Components: Professional Development:Accessibility, Diversity/Inclusion
The Open Education Ecosystem can be thought of as a roundabout where educators and researchers enter into a high-impact landscape through many different on ramps, including Open Educational Resources (OER), Open Data, Open Science, Open Pedagogy, or any of the many aspects of Open Education Ecosystem. Here we describe these common on ramps, transitions, and intersections between different facets of the Open Education landscape and more importantly how Open Education can be leveraged to promote social justice and equity in STEM education. More
Flying with Sankofa: Moving forward by learning from the past
Target Audience: Graduate Students, Post-doctoral Fellows, Institution Administration, Teaching/Learning Assistants, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, College/University Staff, Non-tenure Track Faculty
Program Components: Professional Development:Cultural Competency, Diversity/Inclusion
It is important to celebrate the heroes in our society who spoke up, and who took action to change systems and improve the lives of many. For instance, our nation celebrates heroes like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose legacy continues to inspire civil rights initiatives and advocacy for equitable opportunities. The living legend Shirley Malcom, director of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) SEA Change program, was recently celebrated when her name was recognized on a building at her alma mater, Penn State University. Over her career, Dr. Malcom has tirelessly advocated and brought attention to the challenges of intersectionality, specifically the challenges faced by women of color in the sciences. More
Is the Bus Lane Missing for Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity and Justice (DEIJ) Initiatives in Higher Education?
Target Audience: Post-doctoral Fellows, Graduate Students, Institution Administration, Non-tenure Track Faculty, College/University Staff, Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty
We all want to travel to desired places, but we do not all use the same means to get to our destination. Modes of transportation are human-powered or require replenishment of fuel. Some of us travel in isolation, others car-pool to tackle the journey together, or use public transportation. Progress may feel more like insignificant baby steps and less like traveling in the fast lane where pooling resources and effective pathways decreases demands on each individual. Similarly, context and strategies vary in institutions of higher education, when initiating improvements in institutional climates. More
What is Social Justice in STEMM Higher Education
Target Audience: Tenured/Tenure-track Faculty, College/University Staff, Non-tenure Track Faculty, Institution Administration
Social justice in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) higher education may be defined as ensuring that all students see themselves as fully represented and supported members of STEMM fields, even as new students (Byars-Winston & Dahlberg, 2020). That baseline implies that each student's cultural, religious, sexual and, gender identities, nationality, and socio-economic backgrounds are respected, welcomed, and honored in the STEMM courses. Social justice also includes access for learners of various backgrounds and preparation, of variously-abled situations, and socio-economic status. Social justice in STEMM also requires that faculty are as diverse as the student body, and that curricula include robust representation of fully diverse scientists, their data, and their work. Students can then see perspectives of counter-stereotypical scientists, and see themselves in those roles and in that work. The current reality in STEMM classrooms does not reflect that ideal of social justice. We therefore argue that curricula, faculty and staff, and school support systems need to change in order to incorporate social justice into STEMM. More
