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In the College of Engineering, Design and Computing at the University of Colorado Denver, a faculty learning community (FLC) is exploring how to apply known pedagogical practices intended to foster equity and inclusion. Faculty come from all five departments of the college. For this three-year NSF-funded project, Year 1 was dedicated to deepening reflection as individuals and building trust as a cohort. Now, in Year 2, the FLC is focused on translating pedagogical practices from literature and other resources into particular courses. This cohort has experienced some adjustments as some faculty leave the FLC and new faculty choose to join the FLC. Since this cohort continues to grow, this paper presents key features that have supported the FLC’s formation and then transition to Year 2, as well as the design and implementation of a new faculty orientation, called the Welcome Academy, specific to new engineering faculty and practices related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Finally, drawing on the principal investigator (PI) team’s reflections as well as feedback from external evaluators, we provide our insights with the intention of sharing useful experiences to other colleges planning to form such FLCs.
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Board 216: Building Community for Inclusive Teaching: Can We Bridge the Valley of Neglect?
This work describes an effort to nudge engineering faculty toward adopting known best practices for inclusive teaching through a program called Engineering is Not Neutral: Transforming Instruction via Collaboration and Engagement Faculty (ENNTICE). This monthly faculty learning community (FLC) followed the three-year structure of the Colorado Equity Toolkit: Year 1 (reported in 2022) focused on self-inquiry including reflection; Year 2 (reported in 2023) focused on course design including training new engineering faculty; Year 3 (reported in the current paper) focused on building community. The emphasis on building community allows us to address our research question: To what degree does faculty participation in an FLC impact engineering college culture? Building community is measured through broadening participation by faculty in known best practices for inclusive teaching, including three elements of interest. First, we share within our engineering college the progress each department has made toward inclusive teaching participation, using thermometer-styled graphics like those used to illustrate progress toward a fundraising goal. Second, after reviewing certain sections of our engineering college’s plan for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), we submitted brainstormed ideas for implementation to our dean’s office. And third, after reviewing reports from student focus groups conducted in 2020/21, we evaluated progress and made recommendations for next steps; in this context the clarity and urgency of the student feedback is both motivational and difficult to ignore. The common theme in each of three elements is seeking to bridge the valley of neglect that so often divides scholarly work about DEI from concrete changes that benefit students, employers, and the broader community.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2120001
- PAR ID:
- 10613722
- Publisher / Repository:
- ASEE, American Society for Engineering Education
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Portland, Oregon
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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