RCN-UBE Incubator: Expanding Epistemic Boundaries in Biology Education Research

While biology education researchers strive to be inclusive and equitable, they can fall short of their goals due to the use of traditional research methods grounded on a historically Western perspective. These approaches fail to address the role of identity and culture in teaching and learning. This network will bring biology education researchers in dialogue with K-12 education and other social science researchers who have successfully expanded the research paradigms used in their own fields to support research and practices that consider these issues and support student learning and success.

The intellectual merit of the project lies in the potential to generate innovative research, advance knowledge and design novel solutions to answer important and pressing questions of equity and inclusion in the field. Broader impacts include fostering systemic change in biology education research that will lead to practices that remove barriers and enhance the success of marginalized students.

This will in turn, contribute to the recruitment and retention of scientists from diverse backgrounds that will themselves advance NSF's mission to foster scientific progress and advance national prosperity.

The overall goals of the network incubator are to: 1) Assess how current/dominant epistemology, ontology, and practices in Biology Education Research (BER) impact the field's ability to envision and enact equity and inclusion in biology education; 2) Identify which approaches create barriers for achieving equity and social justice in biology education; and 3) Propose new research approaches for BER that better align with inclusive frameworks. To accomplish these goals, the network will host a 3-day community building and planning meeting followed by multiple virtual meetings.

Findings will be disseminated through publication and a web-based presence. These activities align with RCN-UBE's goal to "catalyze positive changes in biology undergraduate education." This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure, and the Directorate for STEM Education, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.