Establishing and Sustaining Inclusive Learning Communities for Supporting Faculty Creating More Inclusive Engineering Classrooms

Jessica Moriah Vaden; April Dukes; Amy L Brooks; Amy Hermundstad Nave; Melissa M. Bilec

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Conference: 2024 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)
Location: Arlington, Virginia
Publication Date: February 25, 2024
Start Date: February 25, 2024
End Date: February 27, 2024
Conference Session: Track 2: Technical Session 8: Establishing and Sustaining Inclusive Learning Communities for Supporting Faculty Creating More Inclusive Engineering Classrooms
Tagged Topics: Diversity and CoNECD Paper Sessions
Page Count: 37
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--45448
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/45448
Download Count: 85

Paper Authors

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Jessica Moriah Vaden University of Pittsburgh

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Miss Jessica Vaden is a PhD Candidate in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh where she is a STRIVE Scholar. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in Chemical Engineering where she was a Meyerhoff Scholar (M26). Jessica’s research spans a number of different areas including sustainable engineering, empowering communities about air quality, and engineering education efforts to create inclusive classrooms and programming.

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April Dukes University of Pittsburgh orcid.org/0000-0002-6626-9331

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April Dukes (aprila@pitt.edu) is the Faculty and Future Faculty Program Director for the Engineering Educational Research Center (EERC) and the Institutional Co-leader for Pitt-CIRTL (Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning) at the

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Amy Hermundstad Nave Colorado School of Mines orcid.org/0000-0001-6561-3455

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Amy Hermundstad Nave is a Faculty Developer in the Trefny Innovative Instruction Center at the Colorado School of Mines. She earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University before going on to earn her PhD in Engineering Education and

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Melissa M. Bilec University of Pittsburgh

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Dr. Bilec is an associate professor in the Swanson School of Engineeringâ€™s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Dr. Bilecâ€™s research program focuses on the built environment, life cycle assessment, sustainable healthcare, and energy im

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Amy L Brooks University of Pittsburgh orcid.org/0000-0002-9949-579X

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Dr. Amy Brooks is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Oregon State University School of Civil and Construction Engineering. Her dissertation research broadly focused on global issues related to sustainable waste management and plastic pollution. Since earning her PhD 2021, Amy has been training in qualitative research methods in engineering education. Currently, she is using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to understand engineering faculty well-being and experiences with professional shame. She is also part of a research team investigating context-specific affordances and barriers faculty face in adopting evidence-based instructional practices in the engineering classroom. Building on the her postdoctoral training, Amy aims to merge her research interests in sustainability and resilience education, emotions in engineering, and engineering identity formation.

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Abstract

Title: Establishing and Sustaining Inclusive Learning Communities for Supporting Faculty Creating More Inclusive Engineering Classrooms Keywords: Faculty, Race/Ethnicity, Engineering, Undergraduate This project is funded through the IUSE (Improving Undergraduate STEM Education) Division of the NSF.

Historically, underrepresented and minoritized students have experienced discrimination and racially stigmatizing experiences that undermine their academic achievement and impact student persistence. Research has illustrated the positive impact instructors have on their students’ success through creating and sustaining inclusive classroom environments. Faculty, particularly in technical disciplines such as engineering, have expressed their desire to improve inclusivity in their classrooms but have had difficulty finding actionable guidance to do so. In addition to needing guidance to improve inclusivity, research has also shown that to institute and sustain cultural change in a classroom or department, it is imperative to provide community to those people implementing changes in support of their efforts.

This study aimed to provide faculty with an inclusive engineering practices menu as well as community to help faculty improve and sustain inclusive environments in their classrooms. We developed and deployed inclusive engineering practices and assessed the practices through student and faculty surveys over three semesters (Fall 2021, Spring 2022, and Fall 2022) across three institutions. Additionally, inclusive learning communities (ILC) were formed and convened to provide participating faculty with a supporting and learning environment to further enhance the inclusive practices menu in their classrooms. The ILCs also provided participants with a platform for feedback on the strategies developed by the research team. The learning communities at each institution were developed with the same shared goals of creating and fostering functional connections among learners and their experiences as well as developing a shared vision among one another. However, the ILCs also differed in meeting structure, whether or not incentives were provided for participation, and what levels of administration and leadership at the institutions are leading the charge for improving inclusivity in classrooms. In addition to discussing the development of the ILCs, this talk will also detail the key differences and lessons learned from each of the institution’s ILCs which were among the authors most prevalent experiences and guide the future direction of this work.

Citation
Format

Vaden, J. M., & Dukes, A., & Nave, A. H., & Bilec, M. M., & Brooks, A. L. (2024, February), Establishing and Sustaining Inclusive Learning Communities for Supporting Faculty Creating More Inclusive Engineering Classrooms Paper presented at 2024 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD), Arlington, Virginia. 10.18260/1-2--45448

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Title: Establishing and Sustaining Inclusive Learning Communities for Supporting Faculty Creating More Inclusive Engineering Classrooms
Keywords: Faculty, Race/Ethnicity, Engineering, Undergraduate
This project is funded through the IUSE (Improving Undergraduate STEM Education) Division of the NSF.

Historically, underrepresented and minoritized students have experienced discrimination and racially stigmatizing experiences that undermine their academic achievement and impact student persistence. Research has illustrated the positive impact instructors have on their students’ success through creating and sustaining inclusive classroom environments. Faculty, particularly in technical disciplines such as engineering, have expressed their desire to improve inclusivity in their classrooms but have had difficulty finding actionable guidance to do so. In addition to needing guidance to improve inclusivity, research has also shown that to institute and sustain cultural change in a classroom or department, it is imperative to provide community to those people implementing changes in support of their efforts. 

This study aimed to provide faculty with an inclusive engineering practices menu as well as community to help faculty improve and sustain inclusive environments in their classrooms.  We developed and deployed inclusive engineering practices and assessed the practices through student and faculty surveys over three semesters (Fall 2021, Spring 2022, and Fall 2022) across three institutions. Additionally, inclusive learning communities (ILC) were formed and convened to provide participating faculty with a supporting and learning environment to further enhance the inclusive practices menu in their classrooms. The ILCs also provided participants with a platform for feedback on the strategies developed by the research team. The learning communities at each institution were developed with the same shared goals of creating and fostering functional connections among learners and their experiences as well as developing a shared vision among one another. However, the ILCs also differed in meeting structure, whether or not incentives were provided for participation, and what levels of administration and leadership at the institutions are leading the charge for improving inclusivity in classrooms.   In addition to discussing the development of the ILCs, this talk will also detail the key differences and lessons learned from each of the institution’s ILCs which were among the authors most prevalent experiences and guide the future direction of this work. 


AU  - Jessica Moriah Vaden
AU  - April Dukes
AU  - Amy Hermundstad Nave
AU  - Melissa M. Bilec
AU  - Amy L Brooks
CY  - Arlington, Virginia
DA  - 2024/02/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Establishing and Sustaining Inclusive Learning Communities for Supporting Faculty Creating More Inclusive Engineering Classrooms
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/45448
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--45448
ER  -