Implementing Institutional Change To Increase Engineering Diversity (original) (raw)
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she is concerned with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning and participation among historically marginalized students of color. Her research focuses on the role of racialized experiences and biases in STEM educational and career attainment, problematizing traditional notions of academic achievement and what is mean to be successful yet marginalized, and STEM identity and identity development in high-achieving students of color. She is currently the PI on two studies funded by NSF, the first of which investigates the causes behind why African Americans remain one of the most underrepresented racial groups in engineering faculty positions. The second study is working toward the design of a holistic racial and gender attentive mentoring program for engineering PhD students of color.
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She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering, an MS in Computer Science and a PhD in Curriculum, Instruction and the Science of Learning. Utilizing her educational background, her teaching specialty is digital and embedded system design and her research areas include engineering education culture, equity in engineering education and increasing diversity in STEM through transformation of traditional teaching methods. Dr. Randy Yerrick, Fresno State University Randy Yerrick is Dean of the Kremen School for Education and Human Development at Fresno State University. He has also served as Professor of Science Education at SUNY Buffalo where he Associate Dean and Science Education Professor for the Graduate School of Education. Dr. Yerrick maintains an active research agenda focusing on two central questions: 1) How do scientific norms of discourse get enacted in classrooms and 2) To what extend can historical barriers to STEM learning be traversed for underrepresented students through expert teaching practices? For his efforts in examining science for the under-served, Dr. Yerrick has received numerous research and teaching awards including the Journal of Research in Science Teaching Outstanding Research Paper Award, Journal of Engineering Education
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The underrepresentation of women in engineering is well-known and well-documented. Women have experienced harmful discrimination due to bias, stereotypes, and an overall lack of institutional support. This paper aims to provide a platform focused on educating to empower individuals to continue to address gender inequity in engineering and computer science in academia. A structured literature review was conducted to focus on the disparities that exist for women, explore why those disparities exist, and discuss solutions that could help close the gender gap. The results of the literature review are coupled with the discussion outcomes from a panel on gender and racial equity in engineering conducted at the 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. This paper is also meant to serve as a record of the panel and discussion that was generated. The panelist perspectives include faculty, administrative, and student roles in engineering at institutions of higher education who shared their experiences, insights, knowledge, and wisdom on what has contributed to the imbalance and what must be done to overcome it. The common thematic elements between the literature review and the panel are analyzed and discussed.
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in 2015 and worked as a post-doctoral researcher with the Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At UIUC she has collaborated with multiple teams of engineering faculty on implementing and assessing instructional innovation. Dr. Cross is currently a Research Scientist in the Department of Bioengineering working to redesign the curriculum through the NSF funded Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) grant. She is a member of the ASEE Leadership Virtual Community of Practice that organizes and facilitates Safe Zone Training workshops. Dr. Cross has conducted multiple workshops on managing personal bias in STEM, both online and in-person. Dr. Cross' scholarship investigated student teams in engineering, faculty communities of practice, and the intersectionality of multiple identity dimensions. Her research interests include diversity and inclusion in STEM, intersectionality, teamwork and communication skills, assessment, and identity construction. Her teaching philosophy focuses on student centered approaches such as problem-based learning and culturally relevant pedagogy. Dr. Cross' complimentary professional activities promote inclusive excellence through collaboration.
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As minority engineering educators at the undergraduate level, the authors of this paper are acutely in tune to the issues of attracting minority students to and graduating them from engineering curriculums. There is a definite challenge in the recruitment and retention of quality minority students in the engineering disciplines. It is time to address these challenges in truth and offer solutions that help to address the root causes of current problems. This paper looks at the two divisions of a students' academic career that have the most impact upon their undergraduate success; that is their k-12 foundational education and their first two years in college as an undergraduate. These two divisions are not mutually exclusive nor are they unaffected by outside influences. There are specifically three challenges that need be addressed if we are to seriously make an impact on attracting minorities to engineering careers. The solutions of which must come from a team of agents and processes, acting upon the students' life at decidedly different time intervals and all with a different focus. The first challenge is that of foundational mathematics and science and the critical time frame for the first challenge is that of between 4th and 6th grades. The second challenge is that of instilling a self motivated work ethic towards learning and the critical time frame is ideally 9th grade but no later than the beginning of the 11th grade. The third challenge is that of financial accountability and the critical time frame is from freshman through sophomore years at the undergraduate level. This paper peers into these real challenges of attracting minority students to engineering careers and offers the seeds for implementing solution plans. If a plan is formulated to address these challenges at the correct time frame, then not only will we be able to attract a greater pool of quality minority students to engineering but we will be producing better students overall.
Changing demographics of the U.S. population drive growing emphases on diversity in engineering education. Still, questions persist about the educational benefits of race and gender diversity within the student population, despite decades of supportive research. The present study sought to estimate the educational benefits that accrue to undergraduate engineering students who interact with diverse peers and perspectives. Furthermore, differences across gender and race were explored. Multi-institutional survey data were analyzed for over 100 undergraduate engineering students using a 2007 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). Findings show that encouraging contact among students from different economic, social, or racial/ethnic backgrounds can produce greater perceived learning gains amongst engineering students.