CERSE Awarded NSF RFE Grant

CERSE awarded an NSF grant to continue researching academic change in engineering

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $620,095 collaborative grant to the University of Washington and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology to support change in engineering departments at academic institutions across the U.S. This Research in the Formation of Engineers (RFE) Design and Development grant, entitled “Understanding the Contextual Factors that Impact Academic Change Through a Practice-Research Collaboration Supporting the NSF RED Projects,” is designed to prepare faculty engaged in NSF Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) projects to make academic change on their campuses, to build and support a consortium of RED teams, and to study the process of academic change.

This project began in 2015 with support from NSF and to date has supported 22 institutions that have received NSF RED grants in implementing revolutionary new approaches to engineering and computer science education on their respective campuses. The project team, Revolutionizing Engineering Departments Participatory Action Research (REDPAR), represents a unique practice-research partnership that links practical faculty development focused on making academic change with research on the impact of contextual factors on academic change projects and the diffusion of change tactics.

“While the need for systemic change in STEM higher education is clear, it has also proven difficult to achieve in a sustainable manner. Even when one department or institution has success with a change project, these changes might not be adopted by other institutions, resulting in small-scale rather than systemic changes,” explains Dr. Julia Williams, RHIT PI. In order to address this problem, the REDPAR project will examine how contextual factors influence the adaptation of change strategies, a key to improving change agents’ ability to predict which change tactics are likely to be most effective within their local environments.

This is the third time in seven years that NSF has recognized the work of the Center for Evaluation & Research for STEM Equity (CERSE) at UW and the Making Academic Change Happen (MACH) team at RHIT with grants to further their research-practice partnership. University of Washington CERSE staff awarded $376,535 are Dr. Cara Margherio, principal investigator, and Dr. Elizabeth Litzler, co-PI. Rose-Hulman faculty awarded $243,560 are Dr. Julia Williams, principal investigator, Dr. Eva Andrijcic, co-PI, and Dr. Sriram Mohan, co-PI. For more information about REDPAR, please visit: https://academicchange.org/ and http://depts.washington.edu/cerse/research/current-research/