Collaborative Research: Track 4: Developing Equity-Minded Engineering Practitioners (DEEP)

NSF Track 4 扩大工程参与 (BPE) 项目旨在促进下一代工程师教育中的文化变革。发展具有公平意识的工程从业者 (DEEP) 中心将吸引具有反思性和主动性的从业者，以在整个工程学科及其他领域创造文化、结构和教学变革。系统性变革的战略是通过有效的基于研究的实践来教育、装备、参与和授权教学人员，以实现包容、公平和透明的学习。 DEEP 中心将通过整个教职员工教育生态系统的实践社区，创建一个可见的专业发展、组织学习和协作中心。 DEEP 中心将对学生的保留和成功产生积极影响，特别是那些来自历史上在工程领域代表性不足的种族和民族背景的学生。 DEEP 专注于修复系统而不是修复学生。通过这样做，DEEP 将通过包容性卓越的知识、信念和实践来加强未来的美国工程劳动力，以便他们能够研究、开发和创新应对 21 世纪全球挑战的最佳解决方案。DEEP 中心将由伊利诺伊大学厄巴纳-香槟分校 (UIUC) 格兰杰工程学院 (UIUC) 的包容性、多样性、公平和机会研究所 (IDEA) 与摩根州立大学米切尔工程学院合作领导。 （密歇根州立大学）。该中心的目标是在 UIUC 和 MSU 培养教师变革推动者，为学生营造公平和包容的教学环境。该项目目标是：(1) 共同开发、共同试点和收集多样性、公平和包容性 (DEI) 教学示例库，供教师调整和融入自己的课程； (2) 在具有公平意识的实践社区中进行合作； (3) 实施一个有效的分析框架来评估和整合包容性 STEM 教学和学习，(4) 阐明、评估和分享传统黑人学院和大学 (HBCU)、少数族裔服务机构 (MSI) 和以白人为主的机构 (PWI) 之间的合作模式，围绕增加 DEI 融入本科工程教育，包括教师交流和课程共同教学。指导性研究问题的重点是了解 DEEP 模型（同伴促进的专业发展和具有公平意识的实践社区）对导致教学人员的知识、态度、行为和有效性 (KABE) 发生变化的影响。评估将采用混合方法，以获得对项目的全面、深入的了解。将使用适当的评估工具来评估 DEEP 参与者 KABE 在培育公平和包容性工程学习环境方面的变化。数据收集活动将包括对来自参与教学人员的教师和课程评估系统数据的审查、对教学人员的访谈、与学生进行焦点小组以评估经验和影响、对现场专业发展和教学人员课程的观察，以及评估 DEEP 实施和结果的感知质量的调查。项目成果将包括创建一个可供公开共享的 DEI 课程示例存储库、一本关于建立 HBCU/MSI-PWI 伙伴关系和分享经验教训的指南、为 UIUC 和 MSU 的同事举办的研讨会，以及为更广泛的工程教育界举办的虚拟网络研讨会。由于我们关注系统性变革，我们计划与工程管理部门、密歇根州立大学和伊利诺伊大学香槟分校以及全国的机构领导层分享项目成果。该项目的成功将弥合需要 DEI 捐款的自上而下的政策改革与多个机构自下而上的教师努力之间的差距，以制定和执行公平和包容性的教学实践。该项目由历史黑人学院和大学本科项目 (HBCU-UP) 共同资助，该项目提供奖项以加强 HBCU 的 STEM 本科教育和研究。该项目还得到 NSF 的 Eddie Bernice Johnson 全国工程和科学领域代表性不足的发现者学习者社区 (INCLUDES) 计划的共同资助，该计划旨在激励和加速协作基础设施建设，以推进和维持系统性变革，从而扩大 STEM 的大规模参与。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This NSF Track 4 Broadening Participation in Engineering (BPE) project aims to catalyze a culture change in the education of the next generation of engineers. The Developing Equity-Minded Engineering Practitioners (DEEP) Center will engage reflective and proactive practitioners toward creating cultural, structural, and pedagogical changes across the engineering discipline and beyond. The strategy for systemic change is to educate, equip, engage, and empower instructional faculty, with effective research-based practices for inclusive, equitable, and transparent learning. The DEEP Center will create a central, visible hub for professional development, organizational learning, and collaboration through communities of practice across the educational ecosystem of faculty and instructors. The DEEP Center will positively impact the retention and success of students, particularly those from racial and ethnic backgrounds that are historically underrepresented in engineering. DEEP focuses on fixing the system rather than fixing the student. In so doing, DEEP will strengthen the future U.S. Engineering workforce with the knowledge, beliefs, and practices of inclusive excellence so that they can research, develop, and innovate the best solutions for 21st century global challenges.The DEEP Center will be led by the Institute for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in collaboration with Mitchell School of Engineering at Morgan State University (MSU). The goal of this center is to develop faculty change agents at UIUC and MSU who will foster equitable and inclusive teaching and learning environments for students The project objectives are to: (1) co-develop, co- pilot, and collect a repository of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) instructional examples for faculty to adapt and infuse in their own curricula; (2) collaborate in equity-minded communities of practice; (3) implement an effective analytical framework for assessing and integrating inclusive STEM teaching and learning, and (4) articulate, evaluate, and share a model for collaboration between Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and predominantly white institutions (PWIs) around increasing the infusion of DEI into undergraduate engineering education that includes faculty exchange and co-teaching of courses. The guiding research questions are focused on understanding the impact of the DEEP model (peer-facilitated professional development and equity-minded communities of practice) to lead to changes in the knowledge, attitude, behaviors, and effectiveness (KABE) of teaching personnel. The evaluation will use a mixed methods approach to gain a comprehensive, in-depth understanding of the project. Appropriate evaluation instruments will be used to assess changes in DEEP participants’ KABE in fostering equitable and inclusive engineering learning environments. Data collection activities will include a review of instructor and course evaluation system data from participating teaching personnel, interviews with teaching personnel, focus groups with students to gauge experiences and impacts, observations of in-person professional development and teaching personnel classes, and surveys assessing perceived quality of DEEP implementation and outcomes. Project outcomes will include the creation of a repository of DEI lesson examples to be shared publicly, a guidebook on forming an HBCU/MSI-PWI partnership and sharing lessons learned, workshops for colleagues at UIUC and MSU, and virtual webinars to the broader engineering education community. Because of our focus on systemic change, we plan to share project outcomes with engineering administration, institutional leadership at MSU and UIUC, and nationally. The success of this project will bridge the gaps between top-down policy reforms requiring DEI contributions and bottom-up faculty efforts across multiple institutions to develop and execute equitable and inclusive teaching practices.This project is co-funded by the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP), which provides awards to strengthen STEM undergraduate education and research at HBCUs. This project is also co-funded by NSF’s Eddie Bernice Johnson Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) Initiative, which seeks to motivate and accelerate collaborative infrastructure building to advance and sustain systemic change to broaden participation in STEM at scale.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.