Planning: Testing Strategies for Empowering Regional Community College Economics Faculty Communities

This ITYC planning project aims to serve the national interest by strengthening regional networks of community college economics faculty to support evidence-based teaching and updated curriculum in response to emerging challenges in economics education. The project plans to use proven approaches to network building and professional engagement from previous NSF-funded efforts in other disciplines to increase collaboration, leadership, and instructional capacity among economics faculty at community colleges. Its significance lies in identifying methods of strengthening regional connections among economics faculty in order to respond to changes such as generative artificial intelligence and evolving economic policy in ways that support improved student learning in economics courses. Building on prior research on faculty development, the project intends to advance understanding of how faculty networks can support innovation in teaching. The goals of this project include testing and refining strategies for regional network development among two-year college economics faculty, examining factors that influence faculty adoption of evidence-based pedagogy and updated curriculum. The project plans to be active in four regions - Texas, Florida, DC/ Maryland/ Virginia, and East/Central California, exploring the potential for building a model of community college economics faculty collaboration that supports improved student outcomes in economics education. The project plans to investigate conditions under which faculty engagement leads to changes in instructional practice. Dissemination plans include sharing findings, resources, and teaching materials through national networks and an established online platform. This project seeks to add to knowledge about how regional faculty communities can be developed and sustained to improve teaching and learning in two-year college STEM contexts. The NSF IUSE: Innovation in Two-Year College STEM Education (ITYC) Program seeks to accelerate and advance knowledge about the impact of emerging and evidence-based practices in undergraduate STEM education at two-year colleges. 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.