This full empirical research paper explores factors influencing engineering faculty’s decisions to implement an equity-focused intervention in their courses. Despite concerted efforts, women, as well as Black, Latiné, and Indigenous (BLI) students remain underrepresented in engineering. Transforming course environments through social belonging interventions has been shown to improve the performance and retention of these students. Faculty investment in this process is critical; however, little is known about the factors that drive or dissuade faculty willingness to implement equity-focused interventions or the role of faculty identities in this process. We address this gap via a convergent parallel mixed-methods design examining the perceptions of 10 engineering faculty from two different institutions who have implemented an equity-focused social belonging intervention. Quantitative data comes from a pre-survey that interested faculty completed before beginning work with the research team and qualitative data from a post-intervention interview. The quantitative data was analyzed descriptively and the qualitative data inductively. The findings from the study offer nuanced insights into the motivations and challenges faculty face in adopting equity-focused interventions and highlight potential strategies to support faculty’s equity-focused development.
Authors
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Eric McChesney (he/him) is a Postdoctoral Scholar for Psychosocial Interventions at Scale with the Learning Research and Development center at the University of Pittsburgh. His work focuses on the development of robust, transferrable psychosocial interventions that improve the outcomes of and environments experienced by women, people of color, and other historically-marginalized students pursuing degrees in Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Technology (STEM). A further strand of his research examines the development of interdisciplinarity in the sciences and works to define the mechanisms by which it is formed, identify the contexts conducive to its flourishing, and develop the educational experiences that accelerate its development.
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Charlie Diaz is a PhD student studying Higher Education at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a recipient of the K. Leroy Irvis Fellowship. His research interests include minoritized student experiences in Higher Ed, student activism, and the development of inclusive policy and practice in Higher Ed.
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Kelly Tatone (she/her), M.Ed., is a research project supervisor at the University of Pittsburgh. She earned her graduate degree in 2022, working full-time and going to school part-time as a post-traditional student. She graduated from The Pennsylvania State University in 1990 with a B.A. in English Literature. She is the proud mother of three amazing women, which is her greatest source of pride.
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Gerard Dorvè-Lewis (he/him) is a higher education PhD student and scholar at the University of Pittsburgh. His broad research interests include equity and social justice in higher education, first-generation college students, Black students, and student success. Prior to beginning his doctoral journey, he worked full-time in student affairs at the University of Florida where he also earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Family, Youth, and Community Sciences.
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Linda DeAngelo is Associate Professor of Higher Education in the School of Education and Director of Graduate Studies with a secondary faculty appointment in the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. DeAngelo studies social stratification, investigating how social inequities are produced, maintained, and interrupted. Currently her scholarship focuses on access to and engagement in faculty mentorship, the pathway into and through graduate education, and gender and race in engineering.
Note
The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on
June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025
