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Work in Progress: Evaluating Teaching Self-Advocacy to Historically Minoritized Graduate Students in STEM

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Self-Advocacy, Sense of Belonging, Measuring Authentic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Construction Management Education Programs

Tagged Division

Minorities in Engineering Division(MIND)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

7

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44245

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44245

Download Count

157

Paper Authors

biography

Carmen Maria Lilley The University of Illinois, Chicago Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-5225-6145

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Dr. Lilley's research interests in engineering education focus on professional development of engineering students at the undergraduate and graduate level. In particular, she is interested in studying the effects of the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity on the professional formation of engineers.

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Abstract

This work in progress paper outlines the evaluation of a self-advocacy program for historically marginalized graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) at a minority serving institution. Self-advocacy originates from the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the Learning Disabilities (LD) communities for effective counseling that promotes academic success and is based on a social justice framework. The underlying principle of self-advocacy is that supporting the agency and knowledge development of students supports moving beyond retention of students through critical transitions to their long term participation in their educational learning, such as post-secondary education in STEM. The pillars of the self-advocacy program are centered on (i) Empowerment, (ii) Promoting self-awareness and (iii) Social Justice and programming in [Name] is aligned and repeated along these three pillars. The current professional development program is in its third year of implementation and to date twenty-seven students have participated in the program. The research aim of this project is to study whether developing skills in self-advocacy of historically minoritized graduate students will support their academic success. Herein, we present the results of the evaluation of the program through a student survey and focus group. The student survey and focus group questions were designed to measure student knowledge, skills and attributes that are expected to be impacted through self-advocacy learning. For example, these may include developing a sense of belonging in their professional community, instilling a sense of agency in their decisions, and also learning about policies to advocate for themselves. The evaluation will serve to identify which programmatic elements the students find most beneficial, which can potentially be institutionalized and expanded more broadly to other institutions or groups that support graduate students in STEM.

Lilley, C. M. (2023, June), Work in Progress: Evaluating Teaching Self-Advocacy to Historically Minoritized Graduate Students in STEM Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44245

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