The Everyday Work of Rural-Serving Community College STEM Faculty: Lessons from an Institutional Ethnography across Wyoming

Y

20

Rural Schools; Community Colleges; STEM Education; College Faculty; Ethnography; Social Influences; Teacher Attitudes; Administrator Effectiveness; Educational Policy; Educational Development; Barriers; Transfer Rates (College)

Rural-serving community college (RSCC) STEM faculty play an essential role for their students and communities. We employed an institutional ethnographic (IE) approach to elucidate the social and ruling relations organizing the everyday work of RSCC STEM faculty in Wyoming. Our data confirm that RSCC educators see students at the center of their work. They detailed gaps and barriers to STEM transfer and explained administration and policy impact on their work, and described work that is invisible. Faculty's feelings of isolation and connection were inextricably linked to social networks and administrator acknowledgement. We explicate a problematic wherein RSCC administrators not centering the student when making decisions grinds with faculty's philosophical and practical focus on student-centered work. Based on our findings, we hope to persuade readers with our practice implications as you question whose interests are being served and the role that power and politics play in the everyday RSCC work.

As Provided

2024

EJ1435419