Conference: HSI Intersectionality Community of Practice for Student Success (HSI-ICPSS)

University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

Institutions of higher education generally define underserved student populations using one-dimensional metrics, such as first-generation college status, PELL recipient, Latinx origin, African American origin, and Native American origin and gender. Yet, research shows that reporting higher education outcomes by race alone, gender alone or class alone is insufficient for documenting and eliminating inequities. Intersectionality or attention to the constitution of race, gender, class, and other axes of inequality as both analytically distinct and simultaneous systems in a given sociohistorical context is a powerful tool for making inequities visible and helping institutions of higher education create effective actions for advancing undergraduate student success in STEM and beyond. The HSI Intersectionality Community of Practice for Student Success (HSI-ICPSS) project will bring together 25 HSIs for a year-long community of practice through a virtual conference series. It will convene participating HSIs for four half-day conferences. Key stakeholders, including faculty, staff and other leaders with expertise in equity and inclusion and undergraduate success initiatives focused on STEM will be invited. A key goal of the virtual conference series is to share state of the art scholarship on the use of intersectionality in higher education and the transformative potential of intersectionality as inquiry and praxis for equity metrics and developing effective strategies for advancing student success. Intersectionality as inquiry and praxis has a long genealogy in both academic and practitioner communities. Yet, the power of intersectionality has not been brought to scale for catalyzing enduring and system-wide equity transformations in equity metrics and distribution of resources in higher education. The long-term goal of HSI-ICPSS is to build capacity for intersectionality as inquiry and praxis as a new gold standard in higher education equity metrics for distribution of resources. The HSI-ICPSS project will result in three written products for each participating HSI: 1) Data Policy Brief outlining institutional consensus values, current data collection and analytical strategies and alternatives that center intersectionality inquiry for equity impact; 2) Action Plan describing their theory of change, stakeholder engagement, anticipated roadblocks, as well as practical solutions in their intersectional community of practice; and 3) Communication Strategy outlining updates to websites and university-wide institutional equity reports on admissions, retention, graduation, including undergraduate STEM degrees. The HSI Program aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education and build capacity at HSIs. Projects supported by the HSI Program will also generate new knowledge on how to achieve these aims. 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.