2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The faculty in chemical engineering a predominantly white R1 institution in the Midwest, began a year-long journey in July 2022 to look at engineering culture and climate and how it impacts the department and college. The initiative aimed to foster discussions among the faculty to enhance efforts in building and nurturing a culture in which everyone is welcome, valued, respected, included, and supported. This initiative was led by a faculty member from the department and supported by the college.

This scaffolded approach included three main elements: weekly challenges, hour-long guided workshops, and faculty retreats. Weekly challenge emails provided opportunities for individual learning and reflection on various topics, such as normalizing a culture of wellness, fostering a weave-in culture, climate in the classroom, transparency in teaching, the power of words and stories, and student retention, persistence, and attrition. Emails were crafted to be short and manageable nudges that included an explanation of the topic, a specific challenge (e.g., write a reflection, consider a new perspective, read about another’s experience, watch a video, try a new strategy in your classroom, etc.), and additional resources for those interested in further exploration.

Guided workshops allowed faculty to come together for discussion about persistent challenges in engineering education. Using the World Café method, these hour-long guided sessions facilitated conversions that enabled the group to share collective knowledge, question assumptions, and use their wisdom and creativity to confront difficult academic challenges. Topics included case studies on student teamwork, engineering norms that continue to persist and be internalized by members of our community, and the future of engineering practice and culture. Small groups of faculty discussed how they might be perpetuating the current culture and explored ways to interrupt or change their approach.

Faculty retreats focused on using the knowledge gained throughout the semester to develop an action plan to shape our future and make positive change happen. These were conducted after a semester of weekly challenges and guided workshops, with the idea that everyone could come into the retreats with a common framework, knowledge of key concepts, and ideas for change. One critical goal of the scaffolded approach was to build a safe environment where faculty could consider and discuss challenging and thought-provoking content, have open dialogue, and build relational bonds.

This paper will present an overview of the scaffolded approach, including examples of each element, and highlight the goals, implementation, and experiences of the initiative, as well as insights and reflections of the faculty lead.