CAREER: GIVEN-Gaming Intervention of Values Engineers Need

Board Of Regents, Nshe, Obo University Of Nevada, Reno, Reno NV

Investigators

Abstract

The field of engineering has realized marginal success in achieving diversity goals regardless of investments of money, research, and time. The GIVEN project will create a new efficient approach to training engineering faculty about diversity in STEM. An important outcome for the GIVEN project is to increase faculty engagement and expand diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts beyond faculty from underserved and marginalized groups. Engineering faculty, despite being aware of diversity issues, generally lack knowledge and have limited resources to intervene or make change to engage with DEI efforts. The GIVEN project is a foundation to provide engineering faculty with the needed resources to meaningfully engage with DEI concepts and could revolutionize DEI training and engineering faculty professional development. This project will measure engineering faculty beliefs about DEI with an online platform or gaming tool. The gaming tool will track the evolution of engineering faculty beliefs about diversity and the research team will assess the impact of the gaming tool with both surveys and individual interviews. This project will encourage engineering faculty to engage with campus diversity efforts through reflection of their role and provide information resources to develop personalized strategies to contribute to local DEI efforts. The GIVEN project will create a tool to evaluate the beliefs of engineering faculty who are charged with educating the next generation of engineering professionals. The project aligns with NSF Broadening participation funding program by developing an innovative method and project to significantly impact the recruitment and retention of engineering faculty. The project will also catalyze the transformation of the engineering culture to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion. This mixed-methods multi-case study seeks to understand engineering faculty beliefs about DEI and develop a gaming intervention to catalyze their engagement with DEI efforts. The study is framed by basic values theory to answer the following research questions: RQ1. What beliefs and values do engineering faculty hold about diversity, equity, and inclusion? RQ2. How do faculty values and beliefs about DEI impact their approach to integrate DEI into their professional activities? RQ3. How does the gaming intervention impact engineering faculty values and beliefs about DEI? This proposal will initiate a national conversation about the role of engineering faculty in promoting diversity and inclusion. Specifically, the project will develop an online gaming tool that can provide asynchronous access to a DEI training instrument tailored for engineering faculty. The synergistic activities of research and teaching will provide a medium to introduce the DEI concepts into the engineering culture, curriculum, and classroom. The results of the study will increase the engineering faculty engagement with DEI efforts. Through their gaming and communities of practice (COP) interactions participants will develop a tailored individualized understanding of what it takes to implement DEI concepts into their faculty activities. Finally, the results of the study will update our understanding of strategic approaches for broadening participation and how faculty can effectively teach diverse students in STEM. The study will provide an exemplar for improving diversity and inclusion initiatives that various institution types can model. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.