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Equity in education has been conceptualized in various ways, which provides different affordances and constraints for policy, research, and teaching decisions. Regarding the latter, there is a dearth of research on how postsecondary science faculty conceptualize equity and whether and how their understandings of equity may be informing their teaching and related practices. This study examined equity conceptions and reported teaching practices among 45 faculty members in a College of Sciences at a research intensive, historically White, public university in the United States. Thematic analysis showed that faculty conceptualized equity in three ways--"equality," "inclusion," or "justice"--and these conceptions were associated with instructor-centered or student-centered practices. Professors with "equality" conceptions of equity tended to report teaching mostly via lecture, while those with "inclusion" conceptions reported using active learning and/or inclusive teaching practices. Most professors with a "justice" conception went beyond active learning and inclusive practices to also include an emerging critical pedagogy. Conceptions of equity appear to inform how university science faculty see their roles in advancing equity in their classrooms. These findings provide a foundation for future research that seeks to support college science faculty's understandings of equity issues in higher education and the pedagogical practices necessary to ameliorate them.

Many efforts to improve science teaching in higher education focus on a few faculty members at an institution at a time, with limited published evidence on attempts to engage faculty across entire departments. We created a long-term, department-wide collaborative professional development program, Biology Faculty Explorations in Scientific Teaching (Biology FEST). Across 3 years of Biology FEST, 89% of the department's faculty completed a weeklong scientific teaching institute, and 83% of eligible instructors participated in additional semester-long follow-up programs. A semester after institute completion, the majority of Biology FEST alumni reported adding active learning to their courses. These instructor self-reports were corroborated by audio analysis of classroom noise and surveys of students in biology courses on the frequency of active-learning techniques used in classes taught by Biology FEST alumni and nonalumni. Three years after Biology FEST launched, faculty participants overwhelmingly reported that their teaching was positively affected. Unexpectedly, most respondents also believed that they had improved relationships with departmental colleagues and felt a greater sense of belonging to the department. Overall, our results indicate that biology department-wide collaborative efforts to develop scientific teaching skills can indeed attract large numbers of faculty, spark widespread change in teaching practices, and improve departmental relations.

Equity in education has been conceptualized in various ways, which provides different affordances and constraints for policy, research, and teaching decisions. Regarding the latter, there is a dearth of research on how postsecondary science faculty conceptualize equity and whether and how their understandings of equity may be informing their teaching and related practices. This study examined equity conceptions and reported teaching practices among 45 faculty members in a College of Sciences at a research intensive, historically White, public university in the United States. Thematic analysis showed that faculty conceptualized equity in three ways—"equality," "inclusion," or "justice"—and these conceptions were associated with instructor‐centered or student‐centered practices. Professors with "equality" conceptions of equity tended to report teaching mostly via lecture, while those with "inclusion" conceptions reported using active learning and/or inclusive teaching practices. Most professors with a "justice" conception went beyond active learning and inclusive practices to also include an emerging critical pedagogy. Conceptions of equity appear to inform how university science faculty see their roles in advancing equity in their classrooms. These findings provide a foundation for future research that seeks to support college science faculty's understandings of equity issues in higher education and the pedagogical practices necessary to ameliorate them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]