Developing a Recipe for Success: Critical Factors for Developing a STEM Ecosystem

• In Event: 69.056 - Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: 69.056-2 - Laying the Groundwork for a STEM Ecosystem

Abstract

A STEM ecosystem is a promising approach to improving access to and the quality of STEM learning opportunities. STEM ecosystems can harness a locale’s (state, region, city, community) collective experience as well as its human and fiscal assets to craft innovative solutions to enhance the quality of STEM Education (National Research Council [NRC], 2015). In STEM Learning is Everywhere, the National Research Council (NRC, 2014) pinpoints the STEM education issue; students in the US are not prepared for STEM careers nor are they equipped to engage in conversations about STEM-related issues that impact them as citizens. The NRC proposes exploring local ecosystems as a potentially effective, albeit long-term strategy to improve STEM education.

While promising, there is still much to learn about how to develop an ecosystem that will achieve the desired goal. The literature on ecosystems and collective impact suggests several factors that are paramount to the design and implementation of an ecosystem. These factors include a common agenda, multi-sector representation, shared measurement systems, a support organization, seamless communication, and coordinated activities (Kania & Kramer, 2011; Traphagen & Traill, 2014). The recent launch of a national cohort of 27 STEM ecosystems provides the opportunity to study, from the perspective of ecosystem participants, the importance of these factors in their work.

This qualitative study uses 30 interviews with local ecosystem partners from 20 ecosystems to investigate which factors ecosystem partners identify as valuable to the development of an ecosystem. In one hour interviews, researchers asked ecosystem partners questions about the goals and needs of their ecosystem, their plan to meet their goals, and the sustainability of their ecosystem. Researchers also asked ecosystem partners to name the characteristics of a successful ecosystem. The researchers used two different analytic approaches to surface the critical factors for ecosystem development from the perspective of ecosystem partners. In the first round of analysis, researchers used an inductive approach, developing codes from analytic memos written by interviewers and then used these codes to analyze the interviews. In the second round of coding, the researcher took a deductive approach and developed codes that represented factors that foundational literature (e.g. Traphagen & Traill, 2014) used by the national initiative found to be essential to an ecosystem such as strong leadership and cross-sector representation.

Initial findings indicate that ecosystem partners find strong links between other partners (86% of partners) and having a dedicated person or entity to develop relationships and build systems and processes for collaboration (66%) as paramount to ecosystem development . Additional factors named as important include creating STEM career pathways for young people (60%), having a clear mission for the ecosystem (53%), involving the community in designing the STEM ecosystem (50%), and improving the capacity of educators to provide enriching STEM learning opportunities (46%). Given the primacy of connections between partners an accompanying paper in the symposium will present the types of cross-sector partnerships that are deemed by STEM ecosystem partners to be the most vital to their work.

Author

• Femi Vance, University of San Diego