2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Utilizing Culturally Responsive Strategies to Inspire African American Female Participation in Cybersecurity

Presented at Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Technical Session 9: Practices of Mentorship & Liaisons

The number of African American females participating in cyber fields is significantly low. To increase African American female participation in cybersecurity, STEM education requires a new approach to student engagement. The most common approach to engaging more African American females in STEM is to provide students access to professional images or role models active in STEM; however, this is not enough. More race-centered strategies beyond role-modeling are needed to attract and retain African American females in STEM. Research studies show that integrating personal experiences and making cultural connections can help improve student participation in STEM from underrepresented populations. In this work, culturally responsive teaching strategies (CRT) are used to engage African American female middle school participants in a summer program.

In 2021, faculty in the Center for Cybersecurity Assurance and Policy (CAP) at Morgan State University (MSU) developed and implemented the GenCyber 'Females are Cyber Stars' (FACS) Summer Camp. This initiative targeted female African American students in Baltimore Public Middle Schools. A total of 39 girls participated in the virtual program during the summer of 2021, and 25 girls engaged in the in-person program during the summer of 2022. The goals of the program were to increase female students' interest in cybersecurity and provide exposure to the fundamentals of cybersecurity, exploitation of hardware and software vulnerabilities, and security of IoT (Internet of Things) devices in a smart home environment.

The FACS Summer Camp Program incorporated culturally responsive strategies to engage the participants in an inclusive and interactive setting. Incorporating culturally responsive strategies empowers students intellectually, socially, and emotionally by using cultural references to teach academic skills. When using this approach, instructional materials should include information relevant to the students' background, customs, and experiences and challenge students to think critically.

Participants were given pre- and post-program surveys to assess learning outcomes and examine the impact of using CRT. The results showed that the girls reported an increase in their knowledge and a gain in interest about cybersecurity and computing. This paper discusses the summer program and curriculum, culturally-responsive teaching strategies deployed, student learning outcomes, and perceptions of cultural responsiveness assessed in the Females are Cyber Stars summer programs.

Authors

Dr. Deanna Bailey Morgan State University [biography]

Dr. DeAnna Bailey is a native of Baltimore, Maryland. She is a U.S Army veteran who served a total of eight years. While serving in the military, she received her undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Morgan State University. She continued her education at Morgan eventually receiving a Doctor of Engineering degree. Dr. Bailey is currently a full-time Lecturer at Morgan State University School of Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Her research focus is developing pedagogical practices in STEM education specific to African Americans to increase their participation, interest, engagement, and comprehension of STEM concepts. Additionally, she specializes in the design and implementation of pre-college engineering programs targeting African Americans. Dr. Bailey is the co-founder and President of EdAnime Productions, a company that creates educational programs that teach children about the history and culture of Continental and Diasporan Africans (Meltrek), use STEAM to build character, confidence, and capabilities (Conscious Ingenuity) and focus on manhood development in teenage boys (Asafo Training Camp).
Dr. Michel A. Kornegay Johns Hopkins University [biography]

Dr. Michel A. Kornegay (Reece) is currently a Senior Professional Staff in the Air Missile Defense Sector (AMDS) at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL). Prior to joining JHUAPL, for 16 years she was as an Associate Professor within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Morgan State University.
Mrs. LaDawn Partlow http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5758-8659 Morgan State University [biography]

Mrs. LaDawn E. Partlow serves as the Director of Academic Engagement and Outreach for the Cyber Security Assurance and Policy (CAP) Center at Morgan State University. She earned both a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from Morgan State University. Mrs. Partlow also serves as the Program Director of the Verizon Innovative Learning Program as well as the Females are Cyber Stars Program, which both focus on providing minority middle school youth with hands-on learning experiences using advanced technology, coding and programming. Mrs. Partlow has also served as an online course development specialist responsible for the creation, organization, and delivery of several web based Electrical Engineering courses offered at Morgan State University. Her technical expertise includes web-based learning, online course development, information management, systems integration, and 3-D simulation and modeling.
Charnee Bowens Morgan State University
Dr. Karen Gareis Goodman Research Group, Inc. [biography]

Dr. Karen Gareis is a Senior Research Associate at Goodman Research Group, Inc., in Cambridge, MA, where she evaluates a range of educational programs, including formal and informal science education, arts education, fellowship and professional development programs, and education and outreach initiatives for groups ranging from museums to public television to NASA missions and for children, teens, and adults. Dr. Gareis received her doctorate and M.A. in Social Psychology from Boston University and a B.S. in Psychology with minors in Linguistics and Anthropology from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Areas of special expertise include research methodology and statistical analysis. Dr. Gareis has conducted studies in a variety of areas, including social support, program evaluation, gender, and work-family issues.
Dr. Kevin Kornegay http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-5233-0154 Morgan State University [biography]

Kevin T. Kornegay received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, in 1985 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1990 and 1992, respectively. He is

Download paper (1.05 MB)

Are you a researcher? Would you like to cite this paper? Visit the ASEE document repository at peer.asee.org for more tools and easy citations.

» Download paper

« View session