2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Evaluating the Importance of Inclusive Teaching in STEM Faculty Hiring

Presented at Faculty Development Division (FDD) Technical Session 10

This research paper describes a study designed to help inform STEM faculty hiring practices at institutions of higher education in the U.S. The purpose is to explore how incumbent faculty members evaluate the importance of STEM faculty applicants’ teaching ability. The research question that guided this study is: How important to search committee members are qualifications related to inclusive teaching practices in STEM faculty hiring? We were interested in understanding how – or if – the introduction of a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) related construct impacted respondents’ evaluation of the importance of teaching qualifications for entry level tenure track and non-tenure track STEM faculty applicants. Therefore, we examined how participants evaluated the importance of applicants’ ability to implement inclusive teaching practices versus the importance of their ability to deliver high quality teaching.

This paper is derived from a larger two-phase sequential mixed methods study examining the factors current faculty members and administrators consider when hiring new STEM faculty members. During the first phase, we launched a nationwide survey to current STEM faculty members and administrators. The second phase was an interpretive qualitative study involving interviews of survey participants to explore selected quantitative findings more deeply.

Quantitative results indicated a statistically significant difference in how incumbent faculty and administrators rated the importance of high quality teaching and inclusive teaching. Specifically, the ability to deliver high quality teaching was rated as highly important while the ability to implement inclusive teaching strategies was rated as significantly less important. This held true when survey respondents were asked about both tenure track and non-tenure track STEM faculty applicants as well as when we examined the data based on institutional characteristics (i.e., Carnegie Classification, Minority-Serving Institution status). Because of the dichotomy between respondents’ evaluation of high quality teaching and inclusive teaching, we conducted interviews to understand how participants viewed these constructs. Preliminary qualitative results indicate that while many STEM faculty believe that high quality teaching and inclusive teaching are one in the same and that high quality teaching requires inclusive teaching, some faculty differentiated high quality teaching from inclusive teaching by reasoning that high quality teaching is related to end of course evaluations.

Shared through traditional lecture, results from this study may help inform strategies for recruiting faculty members who are committed to inclusive teaching practices, addressing inequities in faculty hiring processes, and sharing insights from search committees with prospective faculty members to aid in their preparation for the job search.

Authors

Dr. Torrie A. Cropps The University of Texas at Dallas [biography]

Dr. Torrie Cropps is a Research Scientist in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her research there focuses on institutional climate and hiring equity. Dr. Cropps is also a Lecturer in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies teaching Environmental Justice and Environmental History. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics and her Master of Science in Agricultural Education from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Dr. Cropps earned her PhD in Agricultural Education from Purdue University. Her dissertation focused on the experiences of Black women doctoral candidates in agricultural disciplines at PWIs.
Her research interests include the mentoring, advising, and doctoral socialization of marginalized graduate students; Black collegiate women; marginalized groups in STEM and agriculture; critical qualitative research, and diversity education.
Jue Wu University of California, Berkeley
Ms. Samara Rose Boyle [biography]

Samara is an undergraduate studying neuroscience at Rice University in Houston, TX. She works as a research assistant for Dr. Yvette E. Pearson in the George R. Brown School of Engineering. Her primary research focus is the advancement of diversity, equit
Dr. Canek Moises Luna Phillips http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6571-2733 Rice University [biography]

Dr. Canek Phillips is a Research Scientist at in the George R. Brown School of Engineering at Rice University where his research interests touch broadly on efforts to promote greater equity for underrepresented groups in engineering. Canek earned his PhD
Prof. Stephen P. Mattingly http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6515-6813 The University of Texas at Arlington [biography]

STEPHEN MATTINGLY is a Professor in Civil Engineering and the Director of the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. Previously, he worked at the Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Irvine an
Dr. Yvette E. Pearson P.E. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8781-7085 The University of Texas at Dallas [biography]

Dr. Yvette E. Pearson is Vice President for Campus Resources and Support at The University of Texas at Dallas. A Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), Pearson is recognized globally for nearly 30 years in higher education, particularly for her work to advance sustainability, access, and opportunity in STEM education and practice. Her university-based and consulting efforts have led to over $40M in funding for projects to support initiatives in STEM and changes to policies and practices of global engineering organizations.

Pearson is a registered Professional Engineer, an ENVISION® Sustainability Professional, and a Commissioner on ABET’s Engineering Accreditation Commission. Among her awards and honors are ABET’s Claire L. Felbinger Award for Diversity and Inclusion, ASCE’s Professional Practice Ethics and Leadership Award, the Society of Women Engineers’ Distinguished Engineering Educator Award, the UT System Regents Outstanding Teaching Award, and ASCE’s President’s Medal, one of the highest honors awarded in this global organization of over 150,000 members. Her book, Making a Difference: How Being Your Best Self Can Influence, Inspire, and Impel Change, chronicles her journey and her work’s focus on “making sure other ‘Yvettes’ don’t fall through the cracks.” Her podcast, Engineering Change, has audiences in over 80 countries on six continents.

Download paper (1.93 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

For those interested in:

computer science
engineering
Faculty
Graduate