IUSE/PFE:RED: Rethinking Engineering Diversity, Transforming Engineering Diversity (REDTED)

在过去的10-15年里，提高工程多样性的努力一直停滞不前，尽管在这段时间里制定了许多计划和其他活动。缺乏进展表明，仅仅“修复”输油管道是不够的。相反，需要努力改变工程教育中所有利益相关者对多样性的看法。该项目将彻底改革罗文大学土木工程与环境工程(CEE)系，从根本上增加多样性，并实现所有CEE学生的高保留率和毕业率。正在实施一项雄心勃勃的课程和课外改革计划，以增加妇女和任职人数不足的少数族裔学生以及历来未得到充分服务的群体的代表性。这些措施将采取多管齐下的方法，包括修改招生标准，以促进学生群体的更加多样化；加强学生、教职员工和管理人员对多样性和平等的感知和了解，以改进包容性文化；为一年级和转学学生制定倡导者和盟友导师计划；转变二年级和三年级现有的工程学课程，从狭隘的分学科方法转变为更具包容性的基于系统的方法；并通过提供工业界和学术界的榜样，丰富所有学生的抱负。通过这些努力，该方案的结构将发生根本性变化：在赠款的5年期限内，将系中妇女和族裔/种族少数群体的百分比从19.3%提高到50%以上，同时也增加了所有历史上服务不足的群体的百分比；重新设计课程、教学和学习以及系系统和程序，以促进包容性，使所有学生受益；将所有学生的保留率从85%提高到95%；将所有中东欧学生的5年毕业率从目前的68%提高到80%；并激励教职员工成为转型的积极合作伙伴这一转型研究项目将产生关于URM在工程中的经验的新知识。主要研究问题包括：(1)什么是URM工程专业学生感知的人力资本(获取知识或技能)、社会文化资本(发展人际关系和网络)和个人资本(内在动机和外在动机)？这些认知在种族、民族、社会经济地位、性别和性取向上有什么相似和不同？(2)学生如何感知他们在(土木工程)方面的自我效能和职业认同？(3)在促进采用包容性教学实践和学习环境以及创造包容性文化方面，教师发展培训的哪些方面最有效？这些研究问题将被用来更好地了解城市轨道交通在工程领域的公认障碍，并确定发展包容性模式的战略。战略包括招收和留住学生、教师的态度和教学，以及将影响学生在专业工作场所的思维和工作方式的课程改革。该愿景还延伸到学生的职业成长，通过解决和提高人力、社会和文化资本来培养更高的抱负。这种转变将帮助学生将抱负内化，培养自我效能感和自信，认为他们属于该领域的领导者和包容性的倡导者。这个项目的结果将是一个转换工具包，它允许其他工程项目进行类似的更改。该项目将指导如何将工程文化转变为包容文化，最终形成一支更多样化的工程队伍，为迎接21世纪的挑战做好准备。

Efforts to improve diversity in engineering have stagnated over the last 10-15 years, despite numerous programs and other activities that have been developed over that time. The lack of progress suggests that it is not enough to simply "fix" the pipeline. Rather, efforts are needed to change the way all stakeholders in engineering education think about diversity. This project will revolutionize the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department at Rowan University to radically increase diversity and achieve high retention and graduation rates of all CEE students. An ambitious plan for curricular and extracurricular reform is being used to increase the representation of women and Underrepresented Minority (URM) students and historically underserved groups. These measures will be deployed using a multi-pronged approach that includes revising admission criteria to promote a more diverse student body; enhancing the perception and understanding of diversity and equality among students, faculty and administrators to improve the culture of inclusiveness; developing an Advocate and Allies Mentoring Program for first year and transfer students; transforming the existing engineering curriculum in the second and third year from a narrow sub-discipline based approach to a more inclusive system-based approach; and enriching aspirations for all students by providing role models from industry and academia. Through these efforts radical changes will be made in the structure of the program: increase the percentage of women and ethnic/racial minorities (visible URMs) in the department from 19.3 percent to above 50 percent in the 5 year duration of the grant, while at the same time also increasing the percentage of all historically underserved groups; redesign curriculum, teaching and learning, and department systems and processes to promote inclusiveness that benefits all students; improve retention of all students from 85 to 95 percent; improve 5-year graduation rates of all CEE students from the current level of 68 to 80 percent; and incentivize the faculty to be active partners in the transformationThis transformative research project will generate new knowledge about the experiences of URMs in engineering. The main research questions include: (1) What is the perceived human capital (acquiring knowledge or skills), sociocultural capital (developing interpersonal relationships and networks), and personal capital (intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) of URM engineering students? What are the similarities and differences in those perceptions across race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, gender and sexual orientation? (2) How do the students perceive their self-efficacy and professional identity in (civil) engineering? (3) What aspects of faculty development training are most effective in promoting adoption of inclusive teaching practices and learning environment and creating an inclusive culture? These research questions will be used to obtain a better understanding of the perceived barriers for URMs in the field of engineering and identify strategies for developing a model of inclusivity. Strategies encompass admission and retention of students, faculty attitudes and teaching, and curricular changes that will impact the way students think and function in the professional workplace. The vision also extends to the students' professional growth with higher aspirations being cultivated by addressing and enhancing human, social, and cultural capital. The transformation will help the student internalize aspirations, develop self-efficacy and self-confidence that they belong in the field as leaders and advocates for inclusivity. The results from this project will be a transformation kit, which allows other engineering programs to make similar changes. This project will provide guidance on how to change the culture of engineering to one of inclusion, ultimately resulting in a more diverse engineering workforce prepared to address the challenges of the 21st century.