Columbus, Ohio
June 24, 2017
June 24, 2017
June 28, 2017
Action on Diversity - Supporting Students at Multiple Levels
Diversity and ASEE Diversity Committee
10
10.18260/1-2--28147
https://peer.asee.org/28147
718
Dr. Stephanie Farrell is Professor and Founding Chair of Experiential Engineering Education at Rowan University (USA) and was 2014-15 Fulbright Scholar in Engineering Education at Dublin Institute of Technology (Ireland). From 1998-2016, Stephanie was a faculty member in Chemical Engineering at Rowan. Dr. Farrell has contributed to engineering education through her work in experiential learning, focusing on areas of pharmaceutical, biomedical and food engineering. She has been honored by the American Society of Engineering Education with several teaching awards such as the 2004 National Outstanding Teaching Medal and the 2005 Quinn Award for experiential learning.
Tiago Forin is the Project Coordinator for the REDTED project at Rowan University. He is PhD candidate in Engineering Education and researcher at Purdue University affiliated with XRoads Research Group, the Global Engineering Program and the Office of Institutional Research, Assessment, and Effectiveness. He received a Bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Florida State University and a Master's degree in civil engineering from Purdue University with a focus on environmental engineering.
Kauser Jahan, is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rowan University. She received her B.S.C.E. from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, an MSCE from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Her passion as an educator and mentor has been recognized by many professional organizations over the years. She is the recipient of the Gloucester County Women of Achievement Award, Lindback Foundation Teaching Award, the NJ ASCE Educator of the Year award, the Gary J. Hunter Excellence in Mentoring Award, the ASEE Environmental Engineering Division Meritorious Service Award, the ASEE Women in Engineering Division Sharon A. Keillor Award and the WEPAN Women in Engineering Initiative Award. She has been instrumental in establishing the Attracting Women into Engineering, the Engineers on Wheels and Engineering Clinics for Teachers programs at Rowan University. She has served as the Institutional Representative and Advisory Board Chair for the Women's Professional Network at Rowan University for six years and currently is an advisory board member of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Council on Education (ACE) Office of Women in Higher Education (OWHE). She received a Fulbright award in 2015.
Dr. Ralph Dusseau is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. Dr. Dusseau is also serving as the Associate Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and is Coordinator of the Engineering Management Programs at Rowan University. Dr. Dusseau was an Assistant and Associate Professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan from 1985 to 1995. Dr. Dusseau was the Founding Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rowan University from 1995 to 2008.
Parth Bhavsar, is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rowan University. His research interests include Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), Connected, Autonomous, and connected-automated Vehicle Technologies, Transportation Data Analytics, and Alternative Fuel Vehicles. Dr. Bhavsar has published in peer reviewed journals such as the Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technology, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and the Environment and Transportation Research Record Journal of the Transportation Research Board. Dr. Bhavsar was previously a postdoctoral fellow in a connected vehicle research program in the Glenn Department of Civil Engineering at Clemson University, where he worked on several connected vehicle technology research projects. Dr. Bhavsar received his Ph.D. degree in 2013 and his M.S. degree in 2006 from Clemson University. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on development of an evaluation framework for connected vehicle technology supported alternative fuel vehicles. Dr. Bhavsar also has three years of experience in the private sector in developing transportation engineering and planning solutions, specifically traffic micro-simulation projects.
Beena Sukumaran has been on the faculty at Rowan University since 1998 and is currently Professor and Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Under her leadership, the Civil and Environmental Engineering Program has seen considerable growth in student and faculty numbers. Her area of expertise is in micro-geomechanics and has published over 100 peer reviewed conference and journal papers including several papers on engineering education and the unique undergraduate curriculum at Rowan University, especially the Engineering Clinics. She has been involved in various outreach activities to recruit more women and minorities into engineering and is Program Chair Elect of the Women in Engineering Division of ASEE. She is the recipient of the 2011 New Jersey Section of ASCE Educator of the Year award as well as the 2013 Distinguished Engineering Award from the New Jersey Alliance for Action.
This is a work in progress paper that focuses on one aspect of Rowan University’s multi-pronged efforts to increase the diversity within the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. Diversity in this case extends beyond the traditional racial, ethnic, and sex diversity to embrace diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and socioeconomic status among other non-visible elements of diversity. One way to increase diversity within the program is to develop an inclusive curriculum that allows students to engage actively and intentionally with diversity in ways that increase content knowledge, cognitive sophistication and empathic understanding.
This work is framed in constructivist learning theory and critical pedagogy which have implications for inclusive curricula and instructional practice. Constructivist learning theory considers learning as an active process in which the learner builds conceptual understanding utilizing prior knowledge and experience and reflecting on those experiences. Critical pedagogy promotes education as a practice of freedom that builds a partnership between teachers and learners, recognizes connections between individual experiences and context, and empowers learners to consider problems that relate to their own lives in order to pose new challenges and build new understanding. This paper describes the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department’s efforts to adopt inclusive pedagogy and curricular content across several courses in the curriculum.
Farrell, S., & Forin, T. R., & Jahan, K., & Dusseau, R. A., & Bhavsar, P., & Sukumaran, B. (2017, June), Developing Multiple Strategies for an Inclusive Curriculum in Civil Engineering Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28147
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