Increasing Faculty Participation in Pedagogical Diversity and Inclusion Activities

This is a Work in Progress (WIP) paper. An inclusive classroom environment is one in which all aspects of the classroom, such as the curriculum, faculty to student interactions, student to student interactions, etc. are purposefully designed to promote the intellectual, social, emotional and physical growth of all students [9]. While inclusive teaching practices improve the learning experience of women and under-represented minorities (URM), it can be beneficial for all students. It has been well-documented that women and other minority groups continue to be underrepresented in engineering majors in the undergraduate level [1]. A National Science Foundation (NSF) report observed that "there is the possibility that the curriculum itself is a barrier to underrepresented groups" [5]. Increasing the participation and success of all students is critical to the field of engineering for several reasons [6]: ○ Maintaining the current engineering workforce will become more difficult if all segments of the population are not invited to participate and persist in engineering. ○ A team of problem solvers with cognitively diverse approaches to solve a problem will outperform a team of the cognitively best (but homogeneous) problem solvers [4]. ○ Diversity and inclusion brings increased creativity, better problem-solving abilities, and thus better products. This can result in increased profitability. Targeted programs such as Women in Engineering (WiE) and Minority Engineering Programs (MEP) may foster a supportive environment but do not directly influence the college culture and institutional structure as a whole. Additionally, students may still face difficult or disparate environments in classroom settings and beyond where they interact with majority students [2]. While many programs and initiatives exist to educate faculty about the importance of creating an inclusive classroom environment, data collected at The Ohio State University (OSU) shows that engineering faculty participation in diversity and inclusion activities focusing on pedagogy is limited thereby leading to limited impact. At OSU, an initiative was undertaken to increase faculty participation in pedagogical diversity and inclusion activities. A multi-pronged approach developed under the aegis of a centralized teaching and learning center (TLC) was undertaken to meet these objectives: 1. Creation of a detailed cited resource with information on how to make the classroom a more inclusive environment. 2. Implementation of a workshop for faculty in the College of Engineering (COE) during regular faculty meetings. 3. Discussion sessions with engineering faculty teaching project-based courses. 4. Implementation of informal lunch sessions to encourage sharing of strategies that work. This paper documents the work that has been done thus far as part of this initiative and the plans for the future. This paper will be presented as a lightning talk.