Gender Equity in Higher Education During Disruptive Events: Communities of Practice in the NSF ADVANCE Network

Equity-focused initiatives in higher education institutions (HEIs) are particularly vulnerable during times of crisis, as disruptions can stall progress and institutions may deprioritize structural change efforts. This study examines how equity advocates within the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE program, a long-standing initiative to promote gender equity in academic STEM, persisted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conceptualize ADVANCE not only as a funding mechanism but as a large, multi-institutional community of practice (CoP) that includes overlapping sub-communities that vary in structure and purpose. Using semi-structured interview data, we show how the formal ADVANCE CoP incubated a diverse array of sub-CoPs that played distinct roles throughout the crisis. Peer-led, less formal sub-CoPs were especially vital early in the pandemic response, offering emotional, social, and practical support when institutions were largely immobilized. More formal, institutionally supported sub-CoPs became increasingly important as the pandemic went on, translating short-term adaptations into durable practices and institutional memory. Our findings highlight how different forms of organizational structure within CoPs support different types of needs—cognitive, social, and emotional—at different stages of crisis response. This study contributes to CoP scholarship and research on equity work in HEIs by advancing a relational and temporal understanding of CoPs as infrastructures of support. Rather than privileging knowledge sharing functions alone, we argue that sustainable equity work requires distributed and flexible CoP ecosystems capable of meeting the multifaceted needs of their members. Especially in times of crisis, these networks of care, trust, and collaboration are essential to preserving momentum and enabling long-term institutional transformation.