ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the Inclusive Professional Framework for Faculty—an equity-focused, research-grounded, holistic professional development framework—and how it can inform campus equity and inclusion work, including addressing gender disparities in STEM education globally. Combined with an “equity-centered” leadership approach, the framework highlights principles of inclusion that can help guide higher education faculty and institutional leadership in making student-focused decisions (e.g., classroom policies, laboratory management), as well as broader, systemic and structural decisions (e.g., programming, curriculum and policy). The chapter explores a graduate-level course that comprehensively addresses issues around gender bias in STEM fields as a case study for the application of framework principles in a student-focused context and considers how these principles can impact STEM trainees. The broader-level utility of the Inclusive Professional Framework for Faculty is then considered, with a particular focus on institutional policies and the overall training structure of STEM higher education. The chapter concludes with recommendations for empowering individuals to promote inclusive practices that foster progress and career success in support of achieving gender equity in STEM.
