Asee peer logo

Work in Progress: Using Participatory Design and Qualitative Research Strategies in the Development of a New Faculty Mentoring Program for Undergraduate Engineering Students

Download Paper |

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

Work-in-Progress Session: Understanding Issues Faced by Graduate Students and Faculty

Tagged Division

Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44391

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44391

Download Count

135

Request a correction

Paper Authors

author page

Constanza Miranda Johns Hopkins University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-9110-2832

biography

Rachel McClam Johns Hopkins University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-4745-6094

visit author page

Rachel McClam is a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins School of Education. Her primary research interests involve questions about how to support educators to make and sustain growth in their practice across the span of their career. In particular, she is interested in ways to better support educator development toward equitable outcomes for historically underserved populations, and especially in the STEM subjects. Prior to joining JHU, Rachel spent 6 years as a principal in a Title 1 middle school in Washington, DC. Before that, she was an assistant principal, math department chair, and 5th grade math teacher. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from Duke University and an M.A.T. from American University.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

This is a work in progress. It is common for higher education institutions to implement mentoring programs for their undergraduate students to aid in their transition to college. This transition may involve things like starting an in-residence education away from home, building a professional identity, the attainment of new academic goals and growing a professional network. These could be critical aspects for first-generation students, and overall, in STEM-related careers, where minorities are usually underrepresented. However, there are still important challenges related to the implementation and creation of institutional mentoring programs for undergraduate students in engineering. One roadblock is the potential lack of participation of faculty and students in formally implemented programs. This paper proposes a methodology for the early involvement of faculty, students, and academic advisors by showcasing their experience in the redesign of the undergraduate mentoring program in an R1 university in the US. We are using a participatory design approach to get staff and students involved early and become partners in the construction and delivery of a renewed mentoring initiative. In the first stage, we are collecting evidence using open-ended interviews and participatory design workshops with faculty, students, and staff to understand the local culture around mentoring, perceptions about mentoring, and barriers to success. We are analyzing this data using Grounded Theory. Our preliminary findings help us to have an understanding of how mentoring takes place contextually in our institution and how it relates to existing theoretical frameworks. In addition, our participatory methods may help other institutions in seeing students, faculty, and academic advisors as partners, and in deploying participatory methods to create engaging programs in different areas of academic life.

Miranda, C., & McClam, R. (2023, June), Work in Progress: Using Participatory Design and Qualitative Research Strategies in the Development of a New Faculty Mentoring Program for Undergraduate Engineering Students Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44391

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2023 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015