The STEM Inclusionary was established to collectively address higher education’s need for a culturally responsive resource on effective broadening participation practices that empower faculty and institutions to fully support and advantage undergraduate STEM students from marginalized communities. The STEM Inclusionary cultivates and elevates the research, practices, traditions, and beliefs of a vibrant virtual community of STEM faculty who actively exchange knowledge and information on undergraduate STEM education reform.
What this community shares are connections to knowledge and practices that broaden participation in STEM. For some, those connections are built from lived experience and resistance against hostility while occupying STEM roles and spaces. Others come to this knowledge through places of learning, work, or their community. The body of work at the center of this community will be a beacon to guide others and a refuge for those actively engaged in change work.
Resources for Growth and Amplification
The increased utilization of virtual learning, teaching, and working tools has offered opportunities as well as constraints to our institutions of higher education. Alongside changes in the way higher education institution staff work come changes in maintaining productive academic communities and professional development. The sudden shift to virtual learning, events, and networks established entirely new expectations and innovative options for how professional development can happen and how communities of educators interact and collaborate.
The STEM Inclusionary has education reform leaders at its core, but it serves a larger audience; those looking to understand their students and make change in their teaching practices, those looking to implement reform across a university department or college, those trying to climb the ladder of academia to reach a position where they will finally have the resources and authority to implement long overdue reforms; we are all gathered here to do the work of transformation. And we share resources, opportunities, and guidance to those who look to implement change in their communities. In the STEM Inclusionary you’ll have access to:
- Cutting edge research on Broadening Participation in STEM education
- The latest news on Grants, Awards, and Funding opportunities for Broadening Participation work
- Professional Development offerings and announcements relevant to change leaders
- Connection to a community of reformers at all levels of STEM education
Commitment to Community
We are committed to confronting existing perspectives, collaboratively working with STEM reformers across the nation and abroad, and respectfully acknowledging differences in views, stances, beliefs, and approaches to reforming STEM higher education. As such, The STEM Inclusionary evaluates all community membership applications to ensure that everyone’s experience and knowledge in this collaborative community empowers the collective work.
This knowledge takes many forms and can’t be completely communicated by a singular piece of this body of work. Thus, we shine spotlights not only on the work, but on the people who make up the community generating the tools used to adapt and improve instructional and institutional practices across the nation.
We speak of the need for self-reflection, resting for restoration, and mindfully engaging with our roles as scholars, educators, and leaders of education reform. We speak to the effects of actualizing this knowledge, we share stories of institutional reforms, classroom transformations, and the dynamics of intentionally engaging with a body of knowledge that is aware of the intentionality behind many of the problems we are working to overcome. As our community grows so too does the clarity of our message. We speak with a collective voice transforming STEM higher education.