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WIP: “This is What We Learned”: Sharing the Stories of Experiences of Indigenous-Centered, Engineering & Community Practice Graduate Program at Cal Poly Humboldt

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

July 12, 2024

Conference Session

Equity in Engineering: Uncovering Challenges and Championing Change in STEM Education

Tagged Divisions

Equity and Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/48282

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Paper Authors

biography

Qualla Jo Ketchum Cal Poly Humboldt

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Qualla Jo Ketchum (she/her/ᎾᏍᎩᎠᎨᏴ) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering at Cal Poly Humboldt. She is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and her Indigeneity impacts all she does from her technical research in water resources to her pedagogical practices and educational research around identity, indigenizing engineering practice and teaching, and the structural issues impacting Indigenous engineers. Dr. Qualla earned her PhD in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. She received her Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science in Biosystems Engineering at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. She currently lives and works on the present and ancestral Homeland and unceded territory of the Wiyot Tribe in Humboldt County, California.

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Abstract

The purpose of this WIP research paper is to describe a new research project incorporating centering Indigenous ways of knowing and being within an engineering education context. [Redacted]’s new master’s program in Engineering & Community Practice is among the first of its kind in the United States as an Indigenous-centered graduate engineering program. This program is a one-year, project-based degree where STEM students will work through the relationship-building process with an Indigenous Nation to develop and complete an engineering project. As such, the potential impact of the program could be significant as we start to engage with the decolonization process as a field. This research works to communicate that impact in a way that centers Indigenous ways of being and storytelling. This will be done through incorporating collaborative autoethnographic and Indigenous research methods to share the story of the program through the experiences of all those involved. These methods position the participants as both coauthors and coresearchers in this work as we co-create this new program and new knowledge together. Participants will be asked to regularly reflect on their experiences within the program, their growth, and any conflicts or feelings that arise. These reflections will then be analyzed by the coauthors and coresearchers both for emerging themes and narrative structures to inform the story-building process. Stories will be created for both the individual participants and the program. This is an expansion of a method utilized in previous research incorporating Indigenous storytelling methodology with western qualitative research practices. This work-in-progress paper will share the data collection methods, beginning themes and stories from the students and program coordinator in the program's very first cohort, as well as initial lessons learned from the first year.

Ketchum, Q. J. (2024, June), WIP: “This is What We Learned”: Sharing the Stories of Experiences of Indigenous-Centered, Engineering & Community Practice Graduate Program at Cal Poly Humboldt Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/48282

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