Free ticketed event
Leadership, communication, ethical practices, and teamwork are cross-disciplinary professional skills that are critical for all engineering disciplines. Demonstrating these skills with an equity mindset is a growing need for engineers to more effectively bring their disciplinary technical skills to bear in the workplace as engineering professionals.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering launched a multi-year effort to create and support a cross-disciplinary Community of Practice (CoP) for about 30 engineering faculty from all departments and representing instructors who teach the required first year, senior design capstone, and engineering communication courses. Strategically focusing on these required courses from all disciplines provide the opportunity to impact courses that engage every student. Central to our work is the Inclusive Professional Framework for Faculty [1, 2], a holistic approach to professional development that centers equity. The Inclusive Professional Framework was created by the National Science Foundation's Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES (Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science) Aspire Alliance’s National Change team.
The proposed workshop will introduce participants to the Inclusive Professional Framework, highlight how the Inclusive Professional Framework was integrated into professional development for CoP participants during a kickoff retreat, and in subsequent, topic-focused professional development sessions (i.e., teamwork, communication, ethics, and leadership), and engage participants in Inclusive Professional Framework-aligned activities directly from the CoP professional development sessions. Workshop participants will benefit from time to reflect, share, and translate what they learn to their own institutional contexts.
Format of Workshop
The workshop will be highly interactive, with minimal one-way presentation used primarily to provide context and introduce participants to the basics of the framework. Participants will have opportunities to work individually with peers from their institution and participants from other institutions.
Session activities will include:
- Welcome, introductions, session overview, and community compact [Purpose: Interactively set the stage for engaging, productive, and collaborative sharing and learning together.]
- Individual reflection and Small Group sharing: Current successes and challenges integrating equity into cross-disciplinary professional skills training in courses [Purpose: Ground the session in participant's own experiences and institutional contexts.]
- Brief Presentation: Overview of Aspire’s Inclusive Professional Framework [Purpose: Share background about the Inclusive Professional Framework, its foundation in the literature, and how it is being applied in an engineering context to promote faculty’s focus on equity, to in turn advance students’ cross-disciplinary professional skills learning.]
- Individual reflection and small group discussion: Exploring the salience of identity to teaching & learning [Individual reflection using an academic wheel of privilege. Example questions include: (a) How have your social identities and other factors impacted your own educational experiences? (b) What social and cultural identities and other factors are most relevant to you when you teach? (c) What personal experiences have added to this relevance?]
- Individual reflection and small group discussion: Adopting an asset-based framework [3] for student learning [Leveraging Yosso’s Cultural Wealth model, participants will consider the following prompts: (a) What stories do you have about overcoming challenges that you have reframed in a positive way? (b) What resources, traits, or skills did you need to be successful in overcoming these challenges? (c) With which aspects of Yosso’s cultural wealth model do those match up? (d) How can your reflections about Yosso’s model translate to your work with faculty and/or students?]
- Q&A
- Individual Planning Time: Reflection and action planning. [Participants will have a structured template to help gather their thoughts for next steps/actions when they return to their own campus.]
- Q&A, sharing of resources, and wrap up
References
1) Gillian-Daniel, D. L., Greenler, R. McC. Bridgen, S. T., Dukes, A. A., Hill, L. B. (2021). Inclusion in the classroom, lab and beyond: Transferable skills via an Inclusive Professional Framework for Faculty. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning. 53(5), 48-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2021.1963158
2) Dukes, A. A., Gillian-Daniel, D. L., Greenler, R. McC., Parent, R. A., Bridgen, S., Esters, L. T., & El-Sayed, J. (2023). The Aspire Alliance inclusive professional framework for faculty—Implementing inclusive and holistic professional development that transcends multiple faculty roles. In S.M. Linder, C.M. Lee, S.K. Stefl, & K.A. High (Eds.), The handbook of STEM faculty development. Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, NC.
3) Yosso, Tara J. "Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth." Race ethnicity and education 8, no. 1 (2005): 69-91.
Donald L. Gillian-Daniel, Ph.D., is the Director of Professional Development in the Office of Inclusion, Equity & Diversity in Engineering (IEDE) in the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He engages participants in learning how to teach more equitably and inclusively, both in person and online. He has worked locally, nationally, and internationally, and consulted with universities, National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded initiatives, as well as national non-profits. Don serves as co-lead of multiple NSF-funded projects, including: the INCLUDES Aspire Alliance, and the Inclusive STEM Teaching Project, and EVOLVED (Embedding a Vision to Operationalize, Lift up, and Value Equity and Diversity in the Consortium of Aquatic Science Societies). Don is also the Interim Executive Director of the Wisconsin Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (WiscAMP) Program, and the Assistant Director of Wisconsin's Equity and Inclusion Laboratory (Wei LAB).
Chris Dakes, PhD, Director of Center for Innovation in Engineering Education
Dr. Dakes has dedicated his 25+ year career to leading change efforts in higher education that contribute to individual learning and advance organizational capacity. His work is grounded in the foundational principle that positive results emerge when we enrich the workplace environment, improve the processes to enhance effectiveness for individuals and diverse groups, and focus on health, quality, and balance of life. The impact of his work can be seen locally, nationally, and internationally through the ongoing work of individuals with whom he has collaborated, programmatic successes and organizational structures that persist, and publications that continue to be referenced by others.
Christa Wille, PT, PhD, Research Analyst, Center for Innovation in Engineering Education; Teaching Faculty Biomedical Engineering Department
Dr. Wille is passionate about using research to advance teaching and learning in higher education, especially in engineering. Through her lived experiences as a learner across multiple disciplines, her leadership in instructional design of a flipped classroom in her biomechanics courses, and her extensive background in research, she is well suited to support scholarship of teaching and learning projects. As a member of the Center for Innovation in Engineering Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she is eager to help use research to advocate for and support educational practices that ensure inclusive and effective teaching and learning practices for all engineering students and instructors alike.
Lizeth Ortiz Reyes, Ph.D., is an Academic Advisor of the Undergraduate Advising Office in the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She engages with students throughout their undergraduate academic careers, especially during periods of important transitions. Alongside her work with students, she works collaboratively with departmental representatives to implement and manage student and academic services. She has a deep commitment to equity and inclusion and strives to provide outstanding service to college’s students by embracing these values.