The Service, Teaching, and Research (STaR) Project supports networking of early career professionals in mathematics education in higher education. Summer conferences and academic year networking allow time for trust and collegiality to develop, and thereby provide opportunities for important issues/challenges to be identified and addressed. This sustained effort promotes networking, constructs an environment that allows working research groups to be established, and provides time for significant professional growth and leadership capacity to flourish.
Conference Series for Recent Graduates and Advanced Doctoral Students in Mathematics Education
The Service, Teaching and Research (STaR) Project is an induction program for recent doctoral graduates in mathematics education. The program, funded by the National Science Foundation, is a 12-month experience that networks early career mathematics educators (in the first or second year of their first academic appointment). The Program focuses on three themes (research, teaching, service) as well as leadership development. The project is designed to mirror the MAA Project NExT experience that has been well established for early career mathematicians.
The initial STaR experience includes a 5-day summer institute in conjunction with the Park City Mathematics Institute (PCMI) in Park City, Utah. STaR Fellows communicate throughout the academic year and regroup in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE).
The Program was designed, in part, to respond to the shortage of people with doctorates in mathematics education. Once a person completes their degree and secures a position in higher education, it is important to them, their institution and the field that they succeed. New faculty members face many challenges as they set about establishing a career path that will lead to promotion and tenure. The STaR Program is designed to help early career mathematics educators address some of these challenges.
Participation in the STaR Program is competitive and selection for each new cohort is based on a set of application materials submitted by the applicant.
The first cohort of STaR Fellows includes 44 faculty from 42 different academic institutions (about half with appointments in departments of mathematics and the other half with appointments in departments of education. The summer institute for the first cohort was held the week of July 11, 2010. The second cohort of STaR Fellows will be recruited in the fall of 2010. For more information, see:
http://matheddb.missouri.edu/star2/index.htm or contact the Project Director, Robert Reys (reysr@missouri.edu), University of Missouri.