Year 0: Making the Commitment, Preparing the Ground
Laying the Groundwork for a Successful TIPS Pathway
Departmental Commitment expectations
The TIPS: Towards Justice Pathway is a Departmental commitment to change department culture. In deciding as a department whether to embark on the TIPS Pathway, faculty members should familiarize themselves with the full description on this website.
The type of work that is needed in order to make departmental and institutional change is extensive. Before embarking, it is important that the major constituents of an institution are willing to do what it takes to accomplish the goal of transformative change. This means that administrators, faculty, staff, and students are willing to do at least the following:
- Muster up the courage to discuss sensitive topics around race, bias, identity, gender, and other topics that need to be addressed in order to disrupt marginalization of students on campus
- Acknowledge and take responsibility for their role in institutional and systemic marginalization groups of people on campus
- Decide to make change even when it is uncomfortable
- Reimagine the way in which we think about our work, and the nature of disciplines in which we do our work
Department vote
Prior to voting as a department faculty on whether to embark on the TIPS Pathway, a presentation and discussion should be arranged with TIPS designers or experienced facilitators. This may be in-person or virtual as geography and resources dictate. Use the "Contact Us" link at the top of the page.
Data sources uncovered in the previous section (Department Readiness) should be discussed, so the faculty are on the same page about the need for engaging in the Pathway and hoped-for outcomes.
A departmental decision to undertake the TIPS Pathway does not require that every faculty member participate in all Pathway activities, but it does require a critical mass in order to sustainably affect department culture. The Department should have a frank conversation about which members are willing to do the hard work that the Pathway entails, and how the Department will value that work in matters such as course assignment, evaluations (e.g. tenure, reappointment). In our experience, a critical mass of participants includes half or more of the Department's permanent (e.g. tenure/tenure-track or other continuing appointments) faculty, together with interested VITAL (Visitors, Instructors, TAs, Adjuncts and Lecturers) faculty.
Departmental leadership must also support this effort, as the chair will be responsible for shepherding resources, supporting participating faculty, and communicating about the Department’s TIPS work in broader institutional settings.
The Department decision should be made according to standard departmental procedures. It will likely be contingent on sufficient institutional investment to support the work—thus, this process of departmental decision may involve some back-and-forth with appropriate administrators, or external fund-seeking by departmental leadership.
Specific commitments incorporated in the Department’s decision to undertake the TIPS Pathway include:
- Support faculty who participate in TIPS by valuing their work in the RTP process. Professional development completed through TIPS should be counted as service to the department, continuing education in the profession, and implementation of new and innovative teaching pedagogies.
- Further, TIPS Lesson Study may lead to meaningful “scholarship of teaching and learning” efforts, and such public and evaluable activities should be included in candidates’ Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities portfolios.
- Incorporate opportunities at department meetings for TIPS participants to update department faculty on TIPS work and recommendations.
- Attempt, as a department, to take advantage of opportunities that support (Latinx) students, as identified and recommended by TIPS participants.
- Attempt, as a department, to remove structural barriers that are roadblocks for (Latinx) students, as identified and recommended by TIPS participants.
- Institutionalize high-impact practices identified as part of TIPS pathway work, e.g.
- Incorporate rehumanizing dimensions/practices in gateway courses.
- Review and adjust language used in communication with students, faculty, staff, and administration.
Institutional commitment
When the Department has decided to pursue the TIPS Pathway, resources to support the work must be identified. These include financial resources and the time of campus leadership to support and connect Department efforts with other efforts on campus.
Financial commitment
A rough suggested budget is below (assuming 20 participating faculty members); also available is a spreadsheet for you to begin building your own budget proposal.
Sources for funding will vary:
- Internal institutional professional development funds
- External equity-focused higher education grants, such as US Department of Education or NSF HSI or HBCU programs
- Private support from donors interested in STEM education
Institutional integration
An advisory committee of 5–8 university administrators and other stakeholders is an important support structure for your efforts. One structure could include the following members, depending on your university’s structure.
- Dean of College/School housing the TIPS department
- Provost or equivalent
- University Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer
- Alum of the department, who is a member of a population that is historically marginalized in STEM
- Current student from a historically marginalized community
- High-level representatives of other equity and inclusion efforts (e.g. multicultural center, outreach programs) and other key student support structures (e.g. advising, financial aid)
This advisory committee should meet approximately twice per year, beginning at least by the Spring of Year 0. Sample agendas, activities, and discussion topics are available here (link to agendas coming soon)
Individual commitment
As part of the Department commitment to undertake the TIPS Pathway, a critical mass of faculty should have indicated an interest in participating in the Pathway activities. Now is the time to make a more formal commitment. See some sample text for this commitment (collected via Qualtrics or other survey software).
Also at this stage, a Departmental coordinator (typically a faculty member in the Department) and local administrative coordination must also be arranged. The coordinator should be compensated (approximately one course per semester for a 15–20 person department), and will be responsible (with the administrative support person) for contacting and contracting providers, coordinating scheduling and logistics, managing department surveys, etc.
Contracting providers
Much of the work of the TIPS Pathway must be facilitated by STEM education professionals with appropriate expertise and with some distance from the department. We consider external facilitators to be essential to a successful Pathway implementation. At some institutions, these professionals might be available on campus (e.g. Teaching and Learning Center), but they should not be within the Department
External facilitators must work closely together to create a coherent professional learning experience for the Department. In the original TIPS implementation, three providers with overlapping expertise took primary responsibility for the following pieces of the pathway (see Year 1 and Year 2). Your team should include expertise in these areas and be willing to work together to implement the learning experiences outlined in this Pathway guide.
- Equity focus: Year 0 surveys and focus groups, Fall year 1 workshop, bi-weekly (later monthly) check-ins throughout Pathway, Rehumanizing STEM/Equity commentator for some lesson study teams
- Rehumanizing STEM and CRP focus: Year 0 surveys and focus groups, co-designing and leading year 1 Winter workshop, Rehumanizing STEM/Equity commentator for most lesson study teams
- Lesson study focus: Co-designing and leading year 1 Winter workshop, organization of Department lesson study teams (Spring year 1 and year 2); facilitator training and support. If the Department has a member with lesson study expertise, this is the one
Sample scopes of work for provider contracts are provided.
The TIPS leadership team is happy to provide lists of facilitators who have been part of Pathway implementation efforts elsewhere or have otherwise indicated interest and relevant expertise. Email tips@sonoma.edu for more information or if you are interested in being a TIPS professional learning provider.
Student surveys and focus groups
The 4-day workshop at the beginning of Year 1 requires student voices about their experiences in the Department. These should be obtained through a student survey and follow-up focus groups conducted by external providers (to provide greater opportunities for frank feedback).
The survey must be anonymous, and may require Institutional Review Board approval prior to administration. Survey introduction and questions should include:
The results of this survey will be used to help educators understand how to improve your college experience and the experiences of all students in the XXX University Department of XXX. Your honest answers are important. Please help us by taking a few minutes to answer the following questions about your experiences in the Department. Your responses are anonymous.
- Are there ways in which your professors helped to build a welcoming community within classes and the Department? What could be improved? Examples might include sharing their personal story with you, asking about your life, checking in to see how you are doing, doing something that shows you they care about you.
- Have you found mentors in the Department? If not, can you think of reasons that you have not found mentors? If so, what works well for you in these mentoring relationships? What could be improved?
- If you could tell your professors one way that they could support students who don’t feel like they belong in the Department, what would you want them to know? Please expand on both one good thing they do well and one thing they could improve on.
- Is there anything else that you think we should know about your experiences in the Department? Feel free to include as much or as little detail as you would like.
- Are you willing to participate in a focus group (led by a facilitator from outside of our University) to learn more about your experiences and how we might improve? If so, click here (link to a “focus group participant” survey) to enter your contact information in a separate survey.
Survey responses should be provided to the professional facilitators, who will use them to craft focus group questions. The goal is to elicit stories of student experiences that will help Pathway participating faculty understand life in the Department from the Students’ point of view.