In recent decades Australian universities have tried to strengthen forms of equity in STEM fields. While there has been some progress, inequitable outcomes remain in relation to intersecting disparities around gender, class, race, and (dis)ability (Australian Government Department ISER, n.d.). This situation is compounded by uneven regulation and commitments to equity, which are often relegated to peripheral roles with limited capacity and resources. Despite a broad understanding of the need to attend to discipline-specific strategies across the diversity of STEM, little attention has been directed towards building this understanding to foster more equitable and inclusive practices. This paper discusses a research project on the different perspectives of students and academic and professional staff in the diverse environment of a large comprehensive STEM faculty at an Australian regional university. The focus of the project is to examine how equity is articulated within and between disciplinary, teaching, research and administrative contexts and to generate practical recommendations and pedagogical resources to strengthen staff engagement and awareness of equity issues. A question the project pursues is how does the relegation to peripheral roles and units affect differently positioned staff and the capacity institutionally to address complex questions of inequality that impact all levels of activity including teaching and curricula development? Drawing on data from over 200 surveys and 51 in-depth interviews with staff and students this research shows how understandings of equity emerge through different experiences related to positionality (how participants are socially, politically and culturally located). We explore how academic and professional staff and students experience forms of structural marginalisation and exclusion that are often ignored or hidden. Our analysis is framed by an intersectional lens drawing on critical feminist, decolonial social justice theory (Battiste, 2013; Behrendt et al., 2012; Fraser, 2005). A critical approach to understanding the tensions raised by participants focuses on deconstructing power structures and hierarchies that continue to reproduce systems of inequity through White-centric, masculinised, neoliberalism and ‘Eurocentrism in science’ (Dudgeon & Walker, 2015). Through a pedagogical methodology (Burke, Crozier and Misiaszek, 2017; Burke and Lumb, 2018), the project brings a social justice lens to equity by calling for collective spaces and dialogue that challenge socially oppressive environments and enable deeper reflections and engagement with equity issues. The outcomes of this research have the potential to inform future policy decisions within higher educational institutions and guide the development of professional learning programs that promote equity in STEM education.

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