Board 430: What Constitutes Research Excellence? Experimental Findings on Factors Driving Faculty Perceptions of Tenure Candidates in STEM
- Conference
- Location
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Baltimore , Maryland
- Publication Date
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June 25, 2023
- Start Date
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June 25, 2023
- End Date
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June 28, 2023
- Conference Session
- Tagged Topic
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NSF Grantees Poster Session
- Page Count
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13
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--42787
- Permanent URL
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https://strategy.asee.org/42787
- Download Count
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110
Paper Authors
John K. Wagner University of New Mexico
Dr. John K. Wagner is a Postdoctoral Fellow for the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) joint project between the University of New Mexico, Arizona State University, and the University of Oregon. His research interests focus on improving equity in higher education, and the impacts of technology on public opinion and political psychology. Specifically, Dr. Wagner's research explores how to improve equity and inclusion by measuring latent support for exclusionary practices, and designing interventions targeted at improving gaps in graduate student success and support, and faculty hiring, tenure, and promotion. Additionally, his research attempts to understand the impacts of online platforms and their algorithms on political contention in the United States.
Lizandra C. Godwin
University of New Mexico
orcid.org/0000-0002-0898-8338
Dr. Lizandra C. Godwin is a faculty member in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of New Mexico. Dr. Godwin earned her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Florida, and her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Florida A&M University. Her research focuses on materials (ink) development for advanced manufacturing processes, microelectronic devices, and broadening participation in engineering through her engineering education research. Prior to academia, Dr. Godwin worked for many companies, including Intel Corp.
Magda Hinojosa Arizona State University
Dr. Magda Hinojosa is Professor of Political Science and Dean of Social Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University. She received her B.A. in government from the University of Texas at Austin and her A.M. and Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University. Dr. Hinojosa's work examines women’s political incorporation in Latin America, including the role of candidate selection procedures in explaining women’s underrepresentation in formal positions of power and the effects of women’s political representation. Her work has been supported by the Ford Foundation, Fulbright, the National Science Foundation, and USAID. She is the author of Selecting Women, Electing Women: Political Representation and Candidate Selection in Latin America (Temple University Press, 2012) and co-author of Seeing Women, Strengthening Democracy: How Women in Politics Foster Connected Citizens (Oxford University Press, 2020).
Nadia Singh University of Oregon
Dr. Nadia Singh is an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Oregon. Dr. Singh earned her B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University, earned her PhD in Biological Sciences from Stanford University, and did a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University. She was faculty at North Carolina State University for seven years before joining the University of Oregon. Dr. Singh's research focuses on evolutionary genetics and uses Drosophila melanogaster as a model system.
Elizabeth A. Wentz Arizona State University
Dr. Elizabeth A. Wentz is the Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate College and Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University. She earned her PhD in Geography from the Pennsylvania State University and MA and BS from the Ohio State University. Her research focuses on geospatial technologies in urban adaptation to climate change.
Benjamin Jose Aleman University of Oregon
Mala Htun University of New Mexico
Mala Htun is Professor of Political Science at the University of New Mexico and Special Advisor for Inclusion and Climate in the School of Engineering. She works on women's rights, social inequalities, and strategies to promote inclusion and diversity. Htun is the author of three books, most recently The Logics of Gender Justice: State Action on Women’s Rights around the World, co-authored with Laurel Weldon (Cambridge Press, 2018). Htun is lead PI of the NSF-AGEP Catalyst Alliance of UNM, ASU, and U-Oregon and PI of the NSF-funded New Strategies to Combat Harassment in Engineering research project. She has been an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, a fellow at the Kellogg Institute of the University of Notre Dame and the Radcliffe Institute of Harvard, and held the Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship in Japan. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard and a A.B. in international relations from Stanford. She was an assistant and then associate professor at the New School for Social Research from 2000-2011.
Abstract
Background: Engineering among other STEM fields still lacks diversity in faculty participation. This research is funded by the NSF's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program. Our research seeks to identify institutional change initiatives to promote equity and the advancement of underrepresented populations who are pursuing tenure-track STEM faculty positions. Specifically, this research evaluates some of the barriers that are specific to faculty hiring, evaluation and promotion.
Purpose: We want to understand what factors are considered for research excellence in STEM fields. To do this, we developed a survey instrument that asked participants to rate a pseudo faculty member on their research excellence. We included factors such as prestige of Ph.D. granting institution, number of papers published, number of citations, and rank of journal.
Method: A survey instrument was developed and distributed to STEM departments at 3 institutions. The survey results were analyzed using a factorial analysis to highlight which variables would be most important to address if we are to develop a model for institutional change.
Results: We compared the response among STEM disciplines, including engineering at 3 different research-intensive institutions. We analyzed the results using a factorial analysis to understand if there were common themes among institutions and disciplines.
Conclusions: The results of this research highlights potential barriers in the research evaluation process. We highlight where engineering is similar to other STEM fields, and where engineering stands out from those fields in terms of faculty evaluations. We also provide a model that can be used as a step towards institutional and cultural change.
Wagner, J. K., & Godwin, L. C., & Hinojosa, M., & Singh, N., & Wentz, E. A., & Aleman, B. J., & Htun, M. (2023, June), Board 430: What Constitutes Research Excellence? Experimental Findings on Factors Driving Faculty Perceptions of Tenure Candidates in STEM Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42787
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