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Introducing the Ethical STEM Framework—Creating Institutional STEM Identity Embedded with Equitable and Inclusive Principles

Saturday, November 5, 2022

9:45 AM – 10:15 AM

Location: Potomac III&IV

Co-Presenter(s)

MB

Meg Bentley (she/her/hers)

Senior Professorial Lecturer
American University
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
EF

Ellen Feder

William Fraser McDowell Professor of Philosophy and Social Policy
American University
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Nate Harshman

Professor
American University
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
SW

Shari Watkins

Research Fellow
American University, United States
Lauren Weis (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor
American University
Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Program Abstract: At American University, in the heart of Washington, DC, our students are driven and encouraged to foster social change through scholarship and action. Through a yearlong, HHMI-sponsored institutional self-assessment to understand the history and persistence of exclusion in STEM education, we determined that AU has an underdeveloped institutional STEM identity that rewards traditional STEM habits such as rigor, objectivity, and individualism. To foster STEM identity that centers equity, we drafted Ethical STEM, a novel, collaborative, and interdisciplinary framework including regular practice of critical self-reflection and acknowledgment of individual responsibility. Ethical STEM values diverse perspectives and rewards work that has social value. In this session, we will present objectives for Ethical STEM; activities that we hypothesize will foster the practice of Ethical STEM for students, faculty, and staff; and strategies for integrating these into institutional policies and procedures related to measurement of student outcomes and staff and faculty evaluation.