A NASA/University Faculty Development Partnership: Equipping Educators to Promote Equity in STEM Education

As the call for reform in STEM education has continued to increase over the past twenty-five years, new challenges arise for colleges and universities to seek high-quality professional development strategies and opportunities for faculty to upgrade and enhance their STEM teaching methodologies. Against this backdrop, the authors discuss what constitutes high-quality professional development and examine a large-scale three-year case study, involving a collaborative effort among NASA MUREP Educator Institutes for preservice-teachers and STEM education faculty from minority serving institutions. The authors analyze the resulting impacts of this professional development on various aspects of the professional practices of participating university faculty.