IUSE/PFE:RED: Transforming for inclusion: fostering belonging and uniqueness in engineering education and practice

工程师们越来越多地被要求解决社会上最复杂的问题，他们以团队的形式工作，寻找满足多种约束的优雅解决方案。研究表明，多样化的团队比同质化的团队能为复杂的问题提供更好的解决方案。不幸的是，工程人员队伍缺乏多样性。更重要的是，今天的大多数专业工程师没有接受过与不同个人进行有效互动的培训，从而使他们完全融入到解决问题的过程中。因此，至关重要的是，我们必须让今天的工科学生掌握所需的包容性战略，以充分实现高功能、多样化和包容性的团队所带来的积极影响。我们将这一积极影响称为包容红利。该项目的目的是将佐治亚理工学院和埃默里大学华莱士·H·库尔特生物医学工程系的课程改造为有意识地将学生培养成能够实现包容红利的工程师。这个项目将作为一个案例研究如何改变一个高研究活动的工程系的文化和课程，并帮助多样化的“理想工程师”的形象，使感兴趣的学生认为他们不一定要适合一个特定的模式才能成功或被包括在内。预计这些对工程学认知的变化将有助于使美国的工科学生群体和劳动力多样化。该项目的目标是改革工程学教育，培养能够实现包容性红利的工程师。为了实现这一愿景，本系将1)建立由学生、教师、工业工程师和学习科学家组成的多样化的教学孵化器团队，以开发新颖的包容性课堂实践；2)反复孵化、实施和评估课堂活动和策略，帮助学生和教职员工认识到包容性红利，并将这种认可转化为包容性互动策略；3)转变部门文化，通过一对一的互动和实践、团队、课堂和部门政策和程序来拥抱和实施包容性红利。该项目将使用两个框架来指导其努力：最佳区别性理论和人类社会系统理论。最佳区别性理论有助于解释为什么人们既需要归属，又需要独一无二。多样性努力促进了独特性，但往往无法实现少数群体成员的归属感。或者，少数群体成员可能会觉得自己属于自己，但代价是同化群体规范并放弃其独特性。只有当所有参与者都体验到这两种体验时，环境才是包容的。这种感觉是通过包容的互动实践来实现的。人类社会系统理论帮助我们理解，人类在四个不同的社会尺度上进行互动：结对、小组、教室和更大的社区，如部门，每一种都需要一套特定的人际交往技能。文化产生于在每个尺度上发生的社会互动的星座。为了实现能够充分实现包容性红利的多样化和包容性工程劳动力的愿景，该项目试图让工程师掌握他们在所有四个社会规模进行包容性互动所需的知识和技能。这个项目将促进我们对如何在工科学生中发展这些多尺度的人际能力的了解。该项目由本科教育部门、工程教育和中心部门以及化学、生物工程、环境和运输系统部门共同资助，反映了该项目与各部门及其计划各自目标的一致性。

Engineers are increasingly called upon to solve society's most complex problems, working in teams to find elegant solutions that meet multiple constraints. Research shows that diverse teams produce superior solutions to complex problems than do homogeneous teams. Unfortunately, the engineering workforce lacks diversity. More importantly, most of today's professional engineers are not trained to interact effectively with diverse individuals so that they are fully included and integrated in the problem-solving process. For this reason, it is critical that we equip today's engineering students with the inclusive strategies needed to fully realize the positive impact provided by high-functioning diverse and inclusive teams. We call this positive impact the inclusion dividend. The purpose of this project is to transform the curriculum of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University to one that intentionally trains its students to become engineers who are capable of realizing the inclusion dividend. This project will serve as a case study for how to change the culture and curriculum of a high research activity engineering department, and help diversify the image of the "ideal engineer" so that interested students do not feel they must fit a specific mold to be successful or included. It is expected that these changes in how engineering is perceived will help diversify the nation's engineering student body and workforce.The project's goal is to revolutionize engineering education to create engineers who are capable of realizing the inclusion dividend. To achieve this vision the department will 1) establish diverse pedagogical incubator teams of students, faculty, industry engineers, and learning scientists to develop novel inclusive classroom practices, 2) iteratively hatch, implement and evaluate classroom activities and strategies that help students and faculty recognize the inclusion dividend and translate that recognition into inclusive interactive strategies, and 3) transform the departmental culture such that the inclusion dividend is embraced and enacted through interactions and practices evidenced one-on-one, in teams, in the classroom, and in department policies and procedures. This project will use two frameworks to guide its efforts: optimal distinctiveness theory and human social systems theory. Optimal distinctiveness theory helps explain why people need to both belong and be unique. Diversity efforts promote distinctiveness but often fail in achieving, for the minority member, a sense of belonging. Or alternatively, a minority member might feel they belong but only at the cost of assimilating to the group norms and giving up their uniqueness. An environment is inclusive only when all participants experience both. This feeling is achieved through inclusive interactional practices. Human social systems theory helps us understand that humans interact on four distinct social scales: in pairs, in small groups, in classrooms, and in larger communities such as departments, each of which requires a specific set of interpersonal skills. Cultures emerge from the constellation of social interactions that take place at each of these scales. To achieve the vision of a diverse and inclusive engineering workforce that is able to fully realize the inclusion dividend, this project seeks to equip engineers with the knowledge and skills they need to interact inclusively at all four social scales. This project will advance our knowledge of how to develop these multi-scale interpersonal competencies within engineering students. This project is jointly funded by the Division of Undergraduate Education; the Division of Engineering Education and Centers; and the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems; reflecting the alignment of this project with the respective goals of the divisions and their programs.