Empowering Undergraduate Engineers Towards Inclusive Institutional Change Through Research and Organizing

在改进的本科生STEM教育：拉美裔服务机构(HSI)计划的支持下，该Track 2项目旨在增强学生在佛罗里达国际大学工程与计算学院创造包容性制度变革的能力。现有的多元化支持策略倾向于为学生提供服务，以提高他们的学习成绩或留存。虽然这种支持很重要，但它可能会限制学生的代理感，以及他们在大学里拥有发言权的感觉，这是包容的一个重要因素。该项目的意义将来自于实施绝地(正义、公平、多样性和包容性)大使计划，该计划将重点放在佛罗里达国际大学STEM的学生赋权问题上。学生将拥有从事研究、领导或组织项目的有偿职位，他们将定期接受指导，并有良好的机会向管理人员、教师和其他社区成员反馈有关培养更具包容性的以学生为中心的教育环境的实际解决方案。这项工作将有助于了解这一包容性制度变革的新方法，帮助更好地理解与学生赋权相关的机遇和挑战，并产生关于高等商学院包容性的重要见解。该项目的更广泛影响将有助于在佛罗里达国际大学工程与计算学院创造包容性的变化，同时还将广泛传播该项目的见解以供翻译。该项目预计未来将与地方和国家2年和4年制院校的合作伙伴一起扩大规模。绝地模式将创建一个为期一年的学生倡导大使计划，重点是教育、研究和本科生工程专业学生的组织。工程教育教职员工和学生支持人员将合作建立该项目。该项目的目标是(1)创建一个培养工程和计算机专业本科生担任这一角色的项目，(2)在青年参与性行动研究项目中指导学生，以创造对包容性变革的见解和影响，以及(3)为学生与利益相关者分享他们的项目工作奠定基础。学生将从三个具体的示范项目中进行选择：(1)与边缘化学生群体的面谈研究；(2)关于成功率不平等的入门课程研究；(3)与学生组织合作制定方案和倡议。尽管项目的侧重点不同，但研究小组预计与有洞察力的研究产品和有影响力的方案编制有关的结果将被纳入。除了创建新的计划，研究团队将使用基于设计的研究方法论来理解和启用基于证据的计划设计；并将使用批判性话语分析来调查参与计划的学生的赋权和代理感，并了解绝地计划对利益相关者观点和行动的影响。每个学生项目将在包括当地利益相关者在内的学生项目展示中传播他们的工作。此外，将鼓励学生创建教师和导师发展资源，在会议上发表文章，并向学生组织进行演示，包括在社交媒体上分享。此外，主要研究人员将在国家会议和期刊上发表关于该计划的结构、过程和成功的文章。通过一年一度的反思会议，该项目将与其他利益相关者分享绝地的过程，为翻译和扩展做准备。该项目由HSI计划资助，该计划旨在加强本科生STEM教育，扩大对STEM的参与，并建设HSIS的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program, this Track 2 project aims to empower students to create inclusive institutional change at Florida International University’s College of Engineering and Computing. Existing diversity support strategies tend to provide students with services to improve their academic performance or retention. While this support is important, it can limit students’ sense of agency and feeling that they have a voice in their university, which is an important element of inclusion. The significance of this project will come from the implementation of a JEDI (Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion) Ambassador program which will focus on student empowerment in STEM at Florida International University. Students will have a paid position to conduct either research, leadership, or organizing projects, and they will receive regular mentorship, and have well-scaffolded opportunities to give feedback to administrators, faculty, and other community members on practical solutions for fostering a more inclusive student-centered educational environment. The work will contribute to knowledge about this novel approach to inclusive institutional change, help better understand the opportunities and challenges associated with student empowerment, and generate important insights about inclusion at HSIs. The project’s broader impact will help create inclusive change at Florida International University’s College of Engineering and Computing while also disseminating the project insights widely for translation. The project anticipates future expansions with partners at local and national 2-year and 4-year institutions.The JEDI model will create a yearlong cohort-based student advocacy ambassador program focused on education research and organizing by undergraduate engineering students. Engineering education faculty and student support personnel will partner to establish the program. The project goals aspire to (1) create a program to train undergraduate engineering and computing students for this role, (2) mentor students in Youth Participatory Action Research projects to create insights and impacts towards inclusive change and (3) scaffold students to share their project work with stakeholders. Students will select from three specific model projects: (1) interview study with marginalized student population, (2) gateway course study on inequities in success rates, and (3) development of programming and initiatives in partnership with student organizations. Although projects will differ in focus, the research team anticipates outcomes related to insightful research products and impactful programming towards inclusion. In addition to creating the novel program, the research team will use a Design-Based Research Methodology to understand and enable the evidence-based design of the program; and will use critical discourse analysis to investigate participating students’ empowerment and sense of agency and to understand the impact of the JEDI program on stakeholder views and actions. Each student project will disseminate their work at a student project showcase including local stakeholders. In addition, students will be encouraged to create faculty and advisor development resources, publish at conferences, and conduct presentations to student organizations which includes sharing them on social media. Further, the principal investigators will publish on the program’s structure, process, and success at national conferences and in journals. Via a yearly reflection meeting, the project will share the process of JEDI with additional stakeholders to prepare for translation and expansion. This project is funded by the HSI Program, which aims to enhance undergraduate STEM education, broaden participation in STEM, and build capacity at HSIs.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.