Boundary Dynamics of a Transformative Learning Network : Improving Connection at the Interface of Science and Society

Transformative learning networks are a specific type of loose network with geographically distributed members and member organizations. They hold particular promise for transformation when both top-down and bottom-up processes have failed to support desired systems-level change. The aim of this dissertation is to build knowledge about the social-interactional processes, roles, and practices that build transformative capacity of a network. I apply poststructural and interpretivist point of view to understand the dynamics of boundaries and boundary work in the National Alliance for Broader Impacts. The meso-theory herein claims that two types of boundary work - building boundaries and navigating across boundaries - operate in productive tension to expand knowledge resources and increase network authority and influence in the system over time. This suggests that network leaders can dynamically manage boundaries, shifting emphasis between strength and fluidity to support multi-sited and multi-scalar change. The primary claim of the applied research contribution is that a variety of both structures and interdependent roles and practices work in concert to support transformation across sites and scales. To support this claim, I detail common network substructures, across which critical practices occur and develop a typology of network practices in two distinct, but interdependent roles. Those in the sojourner role focus on site-based work to shift everyday norms. They demonstrate keen awareness of how their institutions enable and constrain change efforts and contribute that knowledge to the network. Those in an expert role, design networks to support meaningful member engagement opportunities across sites and at the same time build identity and coherence within the network to enable transformation at multiple scales. The expert and sojourner roles generally correspond with boundary building and boundary navigation respectively. In addition to the focus on boundary dynamics in networks, this study also examines “Broader Impacts” as a path for connecting science and society in a time when the realms of science and other sectors of society need to come together to address increasingly complex social, educational, and environmental challenges. The final contribution describes a manifestation of one of many possible transformative pathways that emerged from and evolves within the network. The concept of helping scientists develop their “impact identity”, integrates scholarship in a scientific discipline with societal needs, personal preferences, capacities and skills, and one’s institutional context. I understand identity, or a scientists’ self-concept, as a productive driver that can improve outcomes for scientists and for society by bridging the gap between them through public engagement activities. This body of work ties together the theory of morphogenesis from critical realism, boundary concepts from across disciplines, and the landscapes of practice conceptual framework. The aim is to expand understanding about the design and potential of learning networks, which disrupt the status quo to guide change in social-ecological and social-educational systems. The new theory and insights about structures, roles, and practices can inform network and transformation scholars across disciplines. Network leaders, designers, and evaluators can also apply this work to their practice

Understanding faculty and student perceptions about reward and advancement : survey of four STEM departments at research intensive universities

This report summarizes the results of a survey exploring four STEM departments that have engaged in meaningful reforms in academic systems of reward and advancement including promotion and tenure (P&T). The survey was administered as part of a study seeking to expose the strengths and challenges of reform efforts by understanding the lived experiences of faculty and graduate trainees. The four departments are relatively large (>40 faculty), and are situated in public, very high research activity (Carnegie R1) institutions located in relatively small, suburban or rurally-situated college towns in the Northwest and Midwest United States. It aims to provide insights into faculty and student perceptions of and experiences with departmental level practices. University leaders and those working on national-scale initiatives to improve reward and advancement in higher education may find these results useful

Landscape Overview of University Systems and People Supporting Scientists in their Public Engagement Efforts: Summary of Existing Recommendations and Evidence from the Field - Executive Summary

Scientists (and engineers) wishing to conduct public engagement do so in the context of established disciplinary norms and complex institutional systems that may support or limit their success. The report seeks to convey the known complexity and unique challenges for universities to better support for scientists in their public engagement work and summarize potential levers of change to improve this system. Insights in the report come from review of 26 recent reports that include recommendations for universities in supporting public engagement and a series of seven video conference focus groups across levels of the university hierarchy. Each group included three to five individuals across 22 institutions

Grounding Institutional Partnerships in Structures for Broader Impact Design: Summative Evaluation Report

This report presents summative evaluation results for a National Science Foundation funded project entitled Grounding Institutional Partnerships in Structures for Broader Impacts Design (BID). The project represents a collaboration between five institutions: Institute for Learning Innovation, The STEM Research Center at Oregon State University, Scicenter, University of Washington-Bothell, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. BID aimed at creating an inter-institutional structure and toolkit to assist higher education institutions (HEIs) and informal science education organizations (ISEs) in developing sustainable institutional partnerships through collaboration around the design of informal STEM education-based Broader Impacts (BI) experiences. The project built upon the Portal to the Public (PoP) framework, bringing together research support professionals, STEM education professionals and Principal Investigators at HEIs with practitioners at ISEs (i.e., BID partners) to enhance BI experiences for the public by leveraging human resources through intentional coordination and partnerships. This report addresses the impact of this collective work, serves as a record of the project, and as a resource for future partnerships that support BI

Boundaries Crossed and Boundaries Made: The Productive Tension Between Learning and Influence in Transformative Networks

We present an in-depth case study of a learning network that aims to transform infrastructure and practice across the research enterprise to advance societal impacts. The theory of social morphogenesis guides our processual qualitative analysis of the network. We describe how different types of boundary work, both building and navigating across boundaries, operate in tension while contributing to transformative capacity. We conclude that learning networks can play a robust role in fostering transformation by drawing together and holding together forces which expand knowledge and authority over time iteratively and recursively. In addition to this theoretical contribution, we provide practical guidance for how network leaders can dynamically manage boundaries, shifting emphasis between strength and fluidity to support transformative change across sites and scales

Authentic Research through Collaborative Learning (ARC-Learn): Undergraduate Research Experiences in Data Rich Arctic Science

This report serves the formative evaluation of ARC-Learn. The goal of this document is to support the use of evidence to inform programmatic changes and improvements for year two of the program, during which time Cohort One will complete its second year and Cohort Two will complete its first year of activities

Transformative Learning Networks

Learning networks combine multistakeholder collaboration with community-spanning interaction and exchange across sites and scales. They are inter-organizational voluntary collaboratives that support innovation and social learning to promote systemic change. Learning networks are often attempted in situations where existing institutional arrangements cannot address looming challenges, and change is thwarted by a combination of lack of capacity and a powerful status quo. The four learning networks we are examining address the challenges of ecological fire restoration, urban resilience, fostering adaptive capacity to climate change and other unprecedented challenges in developing countries, and the deep cultural divide between the academy and the public.We will consider how these LNs increase capacity to transform complex adaptive systems in which they are embedded. Our definition of resilience is grounded in how collective action can purposefully reconfigure systemic relationships to promote a new and desired state. We will explore how learning networks can balance the autonomy that individual organizations and communities require with the cohesion required to catalyze transformative change in policy and institutions operating at higher spatial/temporal/organizational scales. Different kinds of learning take place at each of different network levels – it is the effective interweaving of these heterogeneous interactions that fosters transformative capacity. Learning networks are bridging organizations: they form a bridge between different ways of knowing in communities and organizations, and they bridge to alternative futures by fostering innovation. Learning networks disrupt old habits and foster new collaborative relationships, reinforcing participants’ shared ties and purpose while providing freedom to experiment with innovative approaches.Learning networks rely on effective design and ongoing facilitation to function effectively. Network facilitators or “netweavers” may be formally identified or may emerge from among network participants. These netweavers collaborate with participants in identifying goals and an effective network topology and infrastructure. Netweavers initiate activities that build community and promote a shared identity that provides the foundation for common practice and purpose. Ties within the network deepen over time as participants identify collaborative solutions. We will explore these features by drawing insights from the origin, design and netweaving of our four learning networks. We will show how effective learning networks possess a loose, light structure that allows them to learn and adapt as their membership becomes more confident and experienced, as new needs and opportunities are recognized, and as resources and institutional support require. We will also consider how network design is cross-scalar,  combining interpersonal and group collaboration with network-spanning interaction and exchange. Finally, we will reflect on how networks foster transformative capacity, an idea that is both conceptually subtle and difficult to detect over the short timescale of our fieldwork. To the extent possible, our work is conducted by our being embedded in network leadership teams and actively participating in ongoing discussion about the network design and facilitation. We will also discuss how participatory action research and developmental evaluation frameworks enable this balance between participation and analytical engagement.

Transformative Learning Networks: insights from four case studies

<div>Paper presented at the 60th annual meeting of the International Society for the Systems Sciences, July 28, 2016 in Boulder, Colorado.</div><div><br></div><div>In this paper, we consider how learning networks build capacity for system transformation. We define learning networks as inter-organizational voluntary collaboratives that nurture professional expertise, and describe their potential to catalyze systemic change by disrupting old habits, fostering new relationships, and providing freedom to experiment. We underscore the complexity of designing, facilitating, and sustaining learning networks, noting four distinct ways learning networks can foster systemic resilience, 1) social-psychological 2) engineering 3) social-ecological, and 4) emancipatory. We then describe our research methods and introduce four learning network case study analyses, in order of their age and relative progress towards transformation:</div><div><br></div><div>•National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI)</div><div>•100 Resilient Cities Network (100RC)</div><div>•Fire Adapted Community Learning Network (FACNet)</div><div>•START (Global Change SysTem for Analysis, Research & Training)</div><div><br></div><div>After describing each network’s origins, approach to promoting transformative change, and structure, we apply three exploratory questions across our cases:</div><div><br></div><div>•How do network facilitators “netweave” within and across participating sites?</div><div>•Is there evidence of organizational learning taking place in each network over time?</div><div>•What transformative capacity do we see developing in each network?</div><div><br></div><div>We conclude by describing the contribution of this analysis to a framework we are developing to explore how learning networks foster resilience within, between, and across scales.</div><div><br></div