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1. Developing a Shared Vision for Change: Moving toward Inclusive Empowerment

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-020-09594-9  

   Doten-Snitker, Kerice; Margherio, Cara; Litzler, Elizabeth; Ingram, Ella; Williams, Julia (May 2020, Research in Higher Education)

   Shared vision is an important process for change projects, serving to amplify success, increase participation, and erode the divide between project leaders and constituents. Yet there are few empirical examinations of the process of building shared vision within academic departments. Using focus groups and participant observation, this study examines shared vision development within 13 large-scale change projects in engineering and computer science higher education. We find that teams of faculty, staff, administrators, and students built shared vision with stakeholders through co-orientation, formational communication, and recognition of stakeholder autonomy. Our results delineate practices for developing shared vision for academic change projects and demonstrate the benefits of inclusive stakeholder empowerment. 

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2. Understanding high school student experiences in an engineering course designed for all

   Figard, R. (June 2022, American Society for Engineering Education Conference & Exposition)

   Pre-college engineering education still struggles to implement curricula that engage a diverse range of students. Engineering for US All (e4usa) aims to fill this gap through a course that demystifies engineering while catering to a broad range of students. This paper examines the influence of the e4usa course on students’ engagement with engineering design, and their understanding of engineering as a potential future educational and career pathway. Focus group sessions were conducted with students from 12 participating schools during the 2020-21 school year to examine how their interests and understanding of engineering were influenced by the course. There were four main question categories for the focus groups, including: (1) students’ perceptions of engineering, (2) engagement in the e4usa course, (3) influences of the e4usa course, and (4) experiences as a female in engineering. Focus group data were analyzed using open coding and constant comparison methods. Themes emerged from each of the main question categories, giving insight into students’ experiences in the e4usa course. Understanding student experiences in the e4usa course has the potential to impact the future design of pre-college engineering experiences that can lead to a more diverse engineering workforce. 

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3. Collaboration Instead of Competition: Blending Existing Pre-College Engineering Programs for Greater Impact

   https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE56618.2022.9962655  

   Dalal, Medha; Carberry, Adam; Efe, Steve; James-Okeke, Petronella; Rogers, David (October 2022, Frontiers in Education Conference)

   This Innovative Practice Work-in-Progress paper aims to capture a unique attempt to break down silos between two pre-college STEM initiatives. A myriad of programs has emerged to provide pre-college students with engineering or robotics experiences. Such initiatives are typically undertaken independent of one another. Engineering For Us All (e4usa) and For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) are two such programs designed to excite youth about STEM careers, specifically engineering. One provides a classroom experience, while the other is primarily extracurricular, affording informal learning experiences. The parallel missions of these two programs provided the impetus for a new partnership, e4usa+FIRST, to leverage the collective strengths of each program and expand engineering access to underserved schools. A workshop was conducted that brought together a variety of stakeholders to explore numerous approaches of blending the two programs. This paper details the design of the workshop and the five emergent blending models. The results advance an argument for the involvement of all stakeholders to create an ecosystem at the pre-college level to broaden participation in engineering education. The study has the potential to impact future motivation and design of pre-college STEM education and outreach programs. 

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4. Understanding the ‘us all’ in Engineering 4 Us All through the Experiences of High School Teachers

   Berhane, B.; Dalal, M.; Klein-Gardner, S.; Carberry, A.; Reid, K.; Beauchamp, C.; Kouo, J.; Pines, D. (January 2021, 3rd annual CoNECD – The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   As our nation’s need for engineering professionals grows, a sharp rise in P-12 engineering education programs and related research has taken place (Brophy, Klein, Portsmore, & Rogers, 2008; Purzer, Strobel, & Cardella, 2014). The associated research has focused primarily on students’ perceptions and motivations, teachers’ beliefs and knowledge, and curricula and program success. The existing research has expanded our understanding of new K-12 engineering curriculum development and teacher professional development efforts, but empirical data remain scarce on how racial and ethnic diversity of student population influences teaching methods, course content, and overall teachers’ experiences. In particular, Hynes et al. (2017) note in their systematic review of P-12 research that little attention has been paid to teachers’ experiences with respect to racially and ethnically diverse engineering classrooms. The growing attention and resources being committed to diversity and inclusion issues (Lichtenstein, Chen, Smith, & Maldonado, 2014; McKenna, Dalal, Anderson, & Ta, 2018; NRC, 2009) underscore the importance of understanding teachers’ experiences with complementary research-based recommendations for how to implement engineering curricula in racially diverse schools to engage all students. Our work examines the experiences of three high school teachers as they teach an introductory engineering course in geographically and distinctly different racially diverse schools across the nation. The study is situated in the context of a new high school level engineering education initiative called Engineering for Us All (E4USA). The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded initiative was launched in 2018 as a partnership among five universities across the nation to ‘demystify’ engineering for high school students and teachers. The program aims to create an all-inclusive high school level engineering course(s), a professional development platform, and a learning community to support student pathways to higher education institutions. An introductory engineering course was developed and professional development was provided to nine high school teachers to instruct and assess engineering learning during the first year of the project. This study investigates participating teachers’ implementation of the course in high schools across the nation to understand the extent to which their experiences vary as a function of student demographic (race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status) and resource level of the school itself. Analysis of these experiences was undertaken using a collective case-study approach (Creswell, 2013) involving in-depth analysis of a limited number of cases “to focus on fewer "subjects," but more "variables" within each subject” (Campbell & Ahrens, 1998, p. 541). This study will document distinct experiences of high school teachers as they teach the E4USA curriculum. Participants were purposively sampled for the cases in order to gather an information-rich data set (Creswell, 2013). The study focuses on three of the nine teachers participating in the first cohort to implement the E4USA curriculum. Teachers were purposefully selected because of the demographic makeup of their students. The participating teachers teach in Arizona, Maryland and Tennessee with predominantly Hispanic, African-American, and Caucasian student bodies, respectively. To better understand similarities and differences among teaching experiences of these teachers, a rich data set is collected consisting of: 1) semi-structured interviews with teachers at multiple stages during the academic year, 2) reflective journal entries shared by the teachers, and 3) multiple observations of classrooms. The interview data will be analyzed with an inductive approach outlined by Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña (2014). All teachers’ interview transcripts will be coded together to identify common themes across participants. Participants’ reflections will be analyzed similarly, seeking to characterize their experiences. Observation notes will be used to triangulate the findings. Descriptions for each case will be written emphasizing the aspects that relate to the identified themes. Finally, we will look for commonalities and differences across cases. The results section will describe the cases at the individual participant level followed by a cross-case analysis. This study takes into consideration how high school teachers’ experiences could be an important tool to gain insight into engineering education problems at the P-12 level. Each case will provide insights into how student body diversity impacts teachers’ pedagogy and experiences. The cases illustrate “multiple truths” (Arghode, 2012) with regard to high school level engineering teaching and embody diversity from the perspective of high school teachers. We will highlight themes across cases in the context of frameworks that represent teacher experience conceptualizing race, ethnicity, and diversity of students. We will also present salient features from each case that connect to potential recommendations for advancing P-12 engineering education efforts. These findings will impact how diversity support is practiced at the high school level and will demonstrate specific novel curricular and pedagogical approaches in engineering education to advance P-12 mentoring efforts. 

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5. High School Teachers’ Preparedness to Implement Blended e4usa+FIRST models in Underserved Communities (Work in Progress)

   Efe, S. (January 2022, American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition)

   Efforts to provide pre-college students with engineering or engineering-related experiences are on the rise in the United States. These efforts are typically undertaken independently of one another and are often in competition to garner greater participation. e4usa+FIRST is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between two pre-college engineering/STEM education efforts that aims to break down existing silos between programs. The project was piloted in nine US high schools within underserved areas. The following study examines high school teacher’s preparedness to teach a blended offering between engineering and robotics curricula following a summer professional development (PD) program. Pilot teachers (n = 10) participated in focus groups to share their perceptions of readiness to implement the blended e4usa+FIRST curriculum. Data was analyzed using open coding and constant comparison methods. Most teachers reported confidence in teaching the blended offering, shared their plans and expectations, and brought up concerns regarding time and sustaining student interest especially during a time of pandemic. This project has implications for precollege engineering education efforts as it could provide a foundational understanding of how two successful programs can be blended, playing a critical role in educating high school students in underserved communities to experience engineering. 

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