The NSF INCLUDES Program: A Critical Policy Discourse Analysis

• In Event: Racialized Funding: Federal and Institutional Mechanisms for Addressing Educational Equity

Abstract

While diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI) in academia are under attack throughout the United States, DEI work varies greatly and often is not well understood. For instance, the terms themselves are not synonymous; rather they denote substantively related concepts of representation, integration, and transformation of sociohistorical power relations. Understanding DEI work is imperative to defending it and, just as importantly, improving it. The NSF INCLUDES program provides a well-defined, high stakes context for studying how federal policy may shape the development of DEI work in higher education. This a critical policy discourse analysis of the INCLUDES program reveals how federal policy may influence the design and development of DEI work through its discursive framing of its goals and problem space.

Author

• Theresa E. Hernandez, Independent Scholar