Examining an Equity-Focused Collective Impacted Project through the Lens of Alliance Members’ Prior Experiences

Research Problem: A Collective Impact (CI) model provides a foundation for bringing together independent organizations, networks, and societies in a structured way to achieve large-scale social change. However, when siloed organizations are brought together, efforts towards finding ways to intersect, rather than work in parallel, to impact social change can be greatly influenced by Alliance members’ previous experiences and how they perceive themselves within the broader Alliance. Research Questions: In this study, we considered how members’ prior experiences shape a newly formed National Science Foundation (NSF) Alliance to broaden participation in engineering. Our research questions were: What were the Alliance members’ prior experiences in collaborative networks that they bring into the new Alliance? and In the context of equity, how are the newly formed Alliance’s members’ funds of knowledge being honored and valued? . Methodology: We conducted semi-structured interviews among the members ( n =13). We then used a codebook established a priori from the CI model to code the interviews. Findings: The data analysis shows a connection between members’ previous experiences in collaborative groups and the perception of current practices within the newly created Alliance. Overall, the findings display heterogeneity of members’ experiences with the conditions of collaborative work, which impacted the early stages of this Alliance. The Alliance has a common goal, but based on findings, there are several impediments. The perceptions and circumstances of members are varied, which impact the members’ ability to create authentic collaboration that will impact the social change needed to broaden participation in engineering. However, all members report cautious optimism regarding the work ahead for the Alliance.

研究问题：集体影响（CI）模型为将独立的组织，网络和社会汇集在一起​​，以结构化的方式来实现大规模的社会变革。 ，而不是同时工作，而不是同盟会员以前的经验以及他们如何在更广泛的角度看待自己，这可能会极大地影响联盟研究：在这项研究中，我们考虑了成员的先前经验如何塑造新成立的国家科学基金会（NSF）联盟，以扩大我们的研究问题。他们带来了新的联盟？方法：我们在成员中进行了半结构化访谈（n = 13）。然后，我们使用了CI模型的先验书籍来编码访谈。以及对新创建的联盟中当前实践的看法，调查结果表明成员在协作工作条件下的经验联盟的阶段。但是，所有成员都会对联盟的工作进行谨慎的乐观。