Building More Effective Collaboration in STEM Education Reform

The success of change initiatives are built upon the relationships between collaborators and with their respective constituents. Just as learning is inextricably connected to social dimensions, transforming STEM education requires productive co-learning and collaboration that 1) aligns interests that are rarely perfectly parallel, 2) overcomes conflict that undoubtedly emerges in the course of every project, and 3) advances collective outcomes. The purpose of this interactive workshop is to share a collaborative change framework and self-assessment tool to help change agents and teams enacting organizational change projects examine collaborative dimensions that must be accounted for in STEM reform projects to more effectively advance institutional change and transformation. We have learned that change practitioners and leaders are often not given sufficient training and resources on how to form and engage in collaborative relationships, producing project inefficiencies, misunderstandings, and conflict. Some of these challenges result because collaborators bring their complex social and organizational experiences to change projects, which influences their perspectives on leadership and change, interests, interactions, and priorities. Yet, change projects often do not take the time to assess these elements and set up guidelines for teams around how to work collaboratively together to avoid the challenges that interrupt the work of advancing change goals. The framework and self-assessment tool we will introduce are a result of an extensive literature review on collaborative dynamics, research and evaluation conducted in the NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Aspire Alliance. In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to connect with other researchers, change agents, administrators, and policymakers as they explore and share their current change work in the context of collaborative dynamics while recognizing the role of community in these transformative efforts.