Inhalt: Implicit bias is one of the most successful cases in recent memory of an academic concept
being translated into practice. Its use in the National Science Foundation ADVANCE
program—which seeks to promote gender equality in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) careers through institutional transformation—has raised fundamental questions about organizational change. How do advocates translate theories into
practice? What makes some concepts more tractable than others? What happens to theories through this translation process? We explore these questions using the ADVANCE
program as a case study. Using an inductive, theory-building approach and combination
of computational and qualitative methods, we investigate how the concept of implicit bias
was translated into practice through the ADVANCE program and identify five key features
that made implicit bias useful as a change framework in the academic STEM setting. We
find that the concept of implicit bias works programmatically because it is (1) demonstrable, (2) relatable, (3) versatile, (4) actionable, and (5) impartial. While enabling the
Schlagwörter:change agent; feminist approach; implicit bias; MINT; mixed methods; STEM; theoretical models; USA
CEWS Kategorie:Netzwerke und Organisationen, Gleichstellungspolitik
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
