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1. Fostering inclusion and diversity through research, teaching, mentoring, and outreach

   https://doi.org/10.1091/mbc.E19-07-0379  

   Torres, Jorge Z. (November 2019, Molecular Biology of the Cell)

   I am deeply humbled and honored to receive the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) Prize for Excellence in Inclusivity. Thank you to the ASCB for recognizing the contributions of faculty to inclusion and diversity in STEM and the importance of this for the advancement of science. Thank you to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) for your generous support of inclusivity. The prize money will be used to fund outreach activities aimed at increasing inclusion in science and to create research opportunities for students from underrepresented groups in the sciences. In this essay, I share bits of my life’s story that I hope will resonate with a broad audience, especially students from underrepresented groups in STEM, and that drive my passion for inclusion and diversity. I provide points of consideration for students to enhance their preparation for science careers and for faculty to improve the current landscape of inclusion and diversity in STEM. 

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2. Broadening the Equity Lens for STEM Teacher Education: The Invisibility of Disability

   Schneiderwind, Joseph; Johnson, Janelle M. (April 2021, AAAS bulletin)

   Carinci, Jennifer E.; Calinger, Betty (Ed.)

   In this blog, we examine STEM teacher education as a means of broadening the equity lens to regularly include disability. We invite you to be co-learners with us. Some of you may be new to this topic; others may be experts. We need ALL of you. Normalizing the conversation around disability in STEM will benefit each of us and the teachers and students with whom we work. 

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3. Broadening the Equity Lens for STEM Teacher Education: The Invisibility of Disability.

   Schneiderwind, J.; Johnson, J.M. (April 2021, AAAS publication)

   Calinger, B.; Carinci, J. (Ed.)

   In this blog, we examine STEM teacher education as a means of broadening the equity lens to regularly include disability. We invite you to be co-learners with us. Some of you may be new to this topic; others may be experts. We need ALL of you. Normalizing the conversation around disability in STEM will benefit each of us and the teachers and students with whom we work. 

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4. Creating Inclusivity in Engineering Teaching and Learning Contexts: Adapting the Aspire Summer Institute Model for Engineering Stakeholders

   Beverly, S. P.; Gillian-Daniel, D. L. (June 2023, 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   There have been many initiatives to improve the experiences of marginalized engineering students in order to increase their desire to pursue the field of engineering. However, despite these efforts, workforce numbers indicate lingering disparities. Representation in the science and engineering workforce is low with women comprising only 16% of those in science and engineering occupations in 2019, and underrepresented minorities (e.g., Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaskan Native) collectively representing only approximately 20% (National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics [NCSES], 2022). Additionally, engineering has historically held cultural values that can exclude marginalized populations. Cech (2013) argues that engineering has supported a meritocratic ideology in which intelligence is something that you are born with rather than something you can gain. Engineering, she argues, is riddled with meritocratic regimens that include such common practices as grading on a curve and “weeding” out students in courses.Farrell et al. (2021) discuss how engineering culture is characterized by elitism through practices of epistemological dominance (devaluing other ways of knowing), majorism (placing higher value on STEM over the liberal arts), and technical social dualism (the belief that issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion should not be part of engineering). These ideologies can substantially affect the persistence of both women and people of color–populations historically excluded in engineering, because their concerns and/or cultural backgrounds are not validated by instructors or other peers which reproduces inequality. Improving student-faculty interactions through engineering professional development is one way to counteract these harmful cultural ideologies to positively impact and increase the participation of marginalized engineering students. STEM reform initiatives focused on faculty professional development, such as the NSF INCLUDES Aspire Alliance (Aspire), seek to prepare and educate faculty to integrate inclusive practices across their various campus roles and responsibilities as they relate to teaching, advising, research mentoring, collegiality, and leadership. The Aspire Summer Institute (ASI) has been one of Aspire’s most successful programs. The ASI is an intensive, week-long professional development event focused on educating institutional teams on the Inclusive Professional Framework (IPF) and how to integrate its components, individually and as teams, to improve STEM faculty inclusive behaviors. The IPF includes the domains of identity, intercultural awareness, and relational skill-building (Gillian-Daniel et al., 2021). Identity involves understanding not only your personal cultural identity but that of students and the impact of identity in learning spaces. Intercultural awareness involves instructors being able to navigate cultural interactions in a positive way as they consider the diverse backgrounds of students, while recognizing their own privileges and biases. Relational involves creating trusting relationships and a positive communication flow between instructors and students. The ASI and IPF can be used to advance a more inclusive environment for marginalized students in engineering. In this paper, we discuss the success of the ASI and how the institute and the IPF could be adapted specifically to support engineering faculty in their teaching, mentoring, and advising. 

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5. Accessible Computer Science for K-12 Students with Hearing Impairments

   https://doi.org/978-3-030-49108-6_13  

   Meenakshi Das, Daniela Marghitu (July 2020, https://arxiv.org/pdf/2007.08476.pdf (Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Applications and Practice))

   An inclusive science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce is needed to maintain America’s leadership in the scientific enterprise. Increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM, including persons with disabilities, requires national attention to fully engage the nation’s citizens in transforming its STEM enterprise. To address this need, a number of initiatives, such as AccessCSforALL, Bootstrap, and CSforAll, are making efforts to make Computer Science inclusive to the 7.4 million K-12 students with disabilities in the U.S. Of special interest to our project are those K-12 students with hearing impairments. American Sign Language (ASL) is the primary means of communication for an estimated 500,000 people in the United States, yet there are limited online resources providing Computer Science instruction in ASL. This paper introduces a new project designed to support Deaf/Hard of Hearing (D/HH) K-12 students and sign interpreters in acquiring knowledge of complex Computer Science concepts. We discuss the motivation for the project and an early design of the accessible block-based Computer Science curriculum to engage D/HH students in hands-on computing education. 

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