Contextualizing And Configuring Conversations: Exploring Stem Faculty Members’ Teaching-related Social Networks Within An Institution Of Higher Education And In Light Of A Pedagogical Change Initiative

• In Event: Re-Imagining Approaches to the Study of the Professorate: Social Physics, Nudges, & Social Networks

Abstract

We explore why and how STEM faculty engage in teaching-related conversations over an improvement initiative. Interconnectedness of faculty did not increase, but faculty learned who they could talk to, alleviating tensions in the activity system based on pedagogical autonomy, professional positions, and degree of comfort in talking to others.

Authors

• Ellen Aster, Oregon State University

• Jana Bouwma-Gearhart, Oregon State University

• Kathleen Quardokus Fisher, Florida International University