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2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Promoting Research Quality to Study Mental Models of Ethics and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in Engineering

Presented at Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

This paper seeks to identify and share research quality considerations associated with studying engineering faculty members’ and engineering practitioners’ mental models of ethics and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in engineering. Our overarching research objective is to generate and synthesize mental models held by experts in ethics and DEI in engineering or engineering education. In this paper, we describe validation considerations to promote research quality with respect to “making data” and “handling data” when studying mental models. We share and rationalize decisions and iterations to research procedures that occurred during the study design and implementation. Specifically, we depict how these shifts aligned with six research quality considerations: theoretical validation, procedural validation, pragmatic validation, communicative validation, ethical validation, and process reliability. As one example, we expound upon procedural validation considerations for making data, wherein we continuously questioned and revised the flow and structure of the interview by 91) seeking and integrating internal feedback (i.e., team) and external feedback (i.e., advisory board), (2) creating memos after each interview, and (3) continuously discussing interview experiences and procedural adjustments. We offer the instrumentation (i.e., the interview protocol included as an Appendix) for cultivating conversations on ethics and DEI in engineering classrooms, amongst engineering faculty bodies, or throughout engineering organizations. Lessons from this study will also guide other researchers who study similarly complex mental models in engineering.

Authors
  1. Dr. Justin L. Hess Orcid 16x16http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1210-9535 Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE) [biography]
  2. Dr. Andrew Katz Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]
  3. Isil Anakok Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [biography]
  6. Sowmya Panuganti Purdue Engineering Education [biography]
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