Proposal Title

A team-based model that catalyzes sustained department-wide change

Session Type

Presentation

Room

Somerville House, room 3315

Start Date

14-7-2023 11:30 AM

End Date

14-7-2023 11:50 AM

Keywords

change model, team-based change, department-level change, sustaining change, student belonging, interviews

Primary Threads

None of the Above

Abstract

We developed a team-based model supporting departmental change and ran 17 change teams at two R1 universities between 2014 and 2021, in a wide variety of STEM academic departments. Change team members included faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduates. Teams were externally facilitated by project staff for a period of up to two years, and were supported in training internal facilitators to continue the work.

Long-term impacts of the change teams were recently investigated by qualitatively analyzing interviews of former team members that took place 1–4 years following the end of external facilitation. In this presentation, we will describe qualitative coding of these rich interviews that illuminate a wide variety of impacts to individuals and departments.

We found that most change teams, or another group in the department, sustained change by continuing to work on the change team’s original project. Sustained change frequently included structural changes to departmental curricula or policies, skill development of team members, and the spread of skills or cultural features from the change team to other departmental groups. Participating departments often experienced department-wide growth around the model’s core principles for change, such as engaging “students as partners” or demonstrating “a commitment to equity and inclusion through their work”.

In alignment with the WCSE theme of Belonging, this presentation will include an examination of one change team’s work that resulted in both a substantial increase in the enrollment of underrepresented students and an increase in the sense of belonging among department majors.

Elements of Engagement

We will involve participants in 2–3 "turn and talk" periods in which they can share ideas about how team-based departmental change has or may apply to their local context, and has or may influence the sense of belonging of members of their department.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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Jul 14th, 11:30 AM Jul 14th, 11:50 AM

A team-based model that catalyzes sustained department-wide change

Somerville House, room 3315

We developed a team-based model supporting departmental change and ran 17 change teams at two R1 universities between 2014 and 2021, in a wide variety of STEM academic departments. Change team members included faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduates. Teams were externally facilitated by project staff for a period of up to two years, and were supported in training internal facilitators to continue the work.

Long-term impacts of the change teams were recently investigated by qualitatively analyzing interviews of former team members that took place 1–4 years following the end of external facilitation. In this presentation, we will describe qualitative coding of these rich interviews that illuminate a wide variety of impacts to individuals and departments.

We found that most change teams, or another group in the department, sustained change by continuing to work on the change team’s original project. Sustained change frequently included structural changes to departmental curricula or policies, skill development of team members, and the spread of skills or cultural features from the change team to other departmental groups. Participating departments often experienced department-wide growth around the model’s core principles for change, such as engaging “students as partners” or demonstrating “a commitment to equity and inclusion through their work”.

In alignment with the WCSE theme of Belonging, this presentation will include an examination of one change team’s work that resulted in both a substantial increase in the enrollment of underrepresented students and an increase in the sense of belonging among department majors.