Centering community input in the design of survey tools to empirically assess cultural change in physics departments

Enacting effective change in physics departments often requires shifting departmental culture around change efforts to prioritize inclusivity, collaboration, and proactive support for diverse student and faculty needs. However, few resources are available that allow departments to evaluate their existing culture around systemic change and monitor cultural shifts over time. This project seeks to design two survey instruments to strengthen organizational capacity for evaluating departments' baseline conditions, enabling APS change initiative leaders to tailor their efforts to existing departmental cultures. Here, I will highlight the use of a novel strategy of engaging in human-centered design to develop the Culture around Systemic Change (CSC) survey and Culture around Equity and Inclusion (CEI) survey. In particular, I will discuss how collaborative design sessions prioritizing input from faculty, students, and change initiative leaders allowed key indicators of departmental culture relevant to systemic change and inclusivity to be collectively identified. Finally, I will present preliminary findings from data gathered using these instruments across multiple physics departments nationwide, and discuss the practical implications for department leaders undertaking educational reform at their institutions.