EAGER GOLD-EN Rewards: removing barriers and supporting geoscience diversity leaders by revising evaluation and reward systems.

University Of Oklahoma Norman Campus, Norman OK

Investigators

Abstract

This EAGER proposal aims to identify, empower, and reward diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) champions within the geosciences by aligning hiring, promotion, award, and other evaluation systems with goals to promote diversity and inclusion within the field. The PIs will work with the Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies (SWCHRS) to learn from and work with national leaders in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in higher education to revise and re-envision evaluation and reward structures within academic units that recruit and train the next generations of geoscientists. PIs propose the following workplan to achieve project goals: 1) Collect DEI data from geoscience departments nationwide to capture a baseline. 2) Interview faculty in focus departments and survey geoscience programs nationally to establish how faculty are currently evaluated in geoscience departments; determine how DEI efforts fit within evaluation, tenure, promotion, and award frameworks; assess faculty attitudes on the value of DEI work; and identify barriers to engaging in and rewarding DEI efforts. 3) Work with expert consultants to develop example evaluation and reward structures that explicitly value DEI work that can be adopted/adapted by other geoscience departments. 4) Work with SWCHRS experts to develop and distribute two webinars focused on helping academic units explicitly value DEI efforts within hiring and evaluation systems. These webinars will be offered at no cost to the geoscience community. 5) Evaluate the impact of the webinars and faculty perceptions of revised evaluation systems that explicitly value and reward DEI efforts. This project proposes to employ social science methods to study barriers that hinder diversity in geosciences. Outcomes from the research will inform the production of resources that PIs will widely and freely disseminate, using a website highlighting 1- example questions, assessment rubrics, and decision trees departments can use to explicitly value DEI knowledge, skills, efforts, and impact in faculty hiring, tenure, promotion, and annual evaluation processes; 2- national geoscience faculty diversity data; and 3-webinars to help geoscience departments clearly and effectively value DEI knowledge and efforts in faculty hiring and evaluation processes. These resources will catalyze development of a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce and engage full participation of UR scholars in geoscience and positively impact URM/marginalized faculty and students by both valuing the knowledge gained through their lived experiences and encouraging more faculty from diverse backgrounds to engage in DEI efforts, thus dispersing the load and broadening the impact, while also rewarding those who engage in DEI work, including previously “invisible” labor. The PIs will develop and share ways to reward faculty who engage in inclusive and active teaching practices, which have been shown to positively impact student learning across the board, while also closing the achievement gap for UR scholars and marginalized students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.