Creating space for critical conversations in chemistry: Lessons Learned from organizing DEIJR Symposia at national meetings of the American Chemical Society

Posted: Sep 13 2023 by

Guizella Rocabado
Southern Utah University

Stephanie Feola
University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Guizella Rocabado, Southern Utah University

Stephanie Feola, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Author Note: This is one of two blog series. This first post is written by Guizella Rocabado.

Creating space for discussions and presentations about issues of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Respect (DEIJR) is a means of building momentum for systemic change in discipline-based education research (DBER) communities. In this two-part blog, I, Guizella Rocabado, and co-organizer Stephanie Feola, will share the lessons we've learned throughout this change process. In this first installment, we will describe the lessons learned from instituting the change of creating a space for DEIJR research and conversations during the American Chemical Society National Meetings. In the second installment, we will share how the focus of the presentations, the nature of the discussions, and theorizing about DEIJR have changed since we began organizing the symposium in 2019 and draw implications for systemic change.

2023 Transforming Institutions Conference Takeaways

Posted: Aug 15 2023 by

Casey Wright
Western Michigan University

Casey Wright, Western Michigan University

The 2023 Transforming Institutions Conference was held June 12-13, 2023, in Minneapolis, MN. With this most recent convening, we are proud to have brought together change researchers and change agents for 12 years. The meeting was made possible by the efforts of a conference planning committee consisting of 10 change agents convened by NSEC (Network of STEM Education Centers) and ASCN (Accelerating Systemic Change Network), supported by 40 reviewers from the systemic change community. Now that the dust has settled, we would like to share some key takeaways, attendee feedback, and future conference plans to continue to build momentum for our community to thrive with change. More

Learning from Evaluation of Effective Teaching Event: Change Leaders Perspectives

Posted: Sep 27 2021 by

Rachel Renbarger
Western Michigan University

Madhura Kulkarni
Northern Kentucky University

Madhura Kulkarni, Northern Kentucky University and Rachel Renbarger, Western Michigan University

At the end of August, three ASCN working groups came together to put on an event called, "Evaluation of effective and inclusive teaching: How can teaching and learning center professionals be involved in change for social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion?" (We will refer to social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion as JEDI for ease throughout this post.) We recommend that people interested in the event watch the recording and access the resources on the event page, but the purpose of this blog post is to highlight what we learned from this event so that other change agents can implement the findings into their work immediately.

Big questions that we wanted to focus on included the who, what, and how of transforming teaching. To understand how change happens, and how we might help create teaching evaluation change on our campuses, we asked Dr. Susan Elrod to describe her work modeling institutional change. More

Learning from Evaluation of Effective Teaching Event: Perspectives on Aligning Incentives

Posted: Sep 23 2021 by

Rachel Renbarger
Western Michigan University

Christine Broussard
University of La Verne

Christine Broussard, University of La Verne and Rachel Renbarger, Western Michigan University

At the end of August, three ASCN working groups came together to put on an event called, "Evaluation of effective and inclusive teaching: How can teaching and learning center professionals be involved in change for social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion?" (We will refer to social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion as JEDI for ease throughout this post.) We heard from working group leaders Christine Broussard, Kadian Callahan, and Holly Cho, and a special guest, Susan Elrod. We were fortunate to have 100 participants join us for the session as well, who represented 77 different institutions. The purpose of this blog post is to give brief highlights regarding what we learned from this event. We recommend that if the topic and event interests you, please watch the recording and access the resources on the event page. More

How do we recruit, support, and retain diverse faculty? Reflections from our discussion series

Posted: Aug 2 2021 by

Patricia Marsteller
Emory University

Pat Marsteller, co-leader of working group 5, Professor of Practice in Biology Emeritus, Emory University

Equity, inclusion, diversity, and justice are foundational in effective higher education settings, including STEM disciplines. Our ASCN working group brings together communities whose work focuses on justice, equity, inclusion, and diversity (JEDI) in higher education. In spring 2021, we focused on a series of informal conversations centered on recruiting diverse faculty. In the series we discussed:

• Why recruiting diverse faculty is important.
• Promising practices for department leaders, such as creating detailed and inclusive recruitment plans, utilizing cluster hires, broadening searches, using faculty search advocates, and providing JEDI education for faculty and for search committees.
• Working with other institutional actors (e.g., data analysts, deans) for institutional and departmental reflections, hiring plans, and data needs. More