Supported by an NSF RED grant, the School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering (CBEE) at Oregon State University seeks to create: (1) a culture where everyone in the CBEE community feels a sense of value and belonging, and (2) a learning environment that prompts students and faculty to meaningfully relate curricular and co-curricular activities and experiences to each other and to connect both with professional practice. For brevity, we label the first goal “equity and inclusivity” and the second “meaningful, consequential learning.” In this paper, we encapsulate our work in this last year (no cost extension) of the grant through the lens of our 17 published or in preparation journal articles. Research in equity and inclusivity has had two foci, unit climate and organizational culture. It has addressed themes of peer relations, the relation between epistemology and climate, and conceptualizations of oppression and privilege. Research in meaningful, consequential learning has focused on activities and assessments that align schooling and engineering practice, and on active learning in studios. As we worked on this project, the team created a shared understanding that equity and inclusivity and meaningful, consequential learning were not separate issues but rather mutually constitutive. This interplay is illustrated in a set of papers around aspects of inclusive teaming. We have described four guiding principles in the published paper by Koretsky et al. (2018). We are building on these principles to provide a theoretical framework in the upcoming manuscripts.
Milo Koretsky is the McDonnell Family Bridge Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and in the Department of Education at Tufts University. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from UC San Diego and his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley,
Professor Emerita of Learning Sciences and Human Development, Dr. Nolen's work focuses on engagement and learning from a situative perspective. Recent research at the postsecondary level includes the take-up and use of tools for concept-based instruction in mechanical engineering and engagement and negotiation in group work on simulated real-world problems in engineering.
Michelle Bothwell is a Professor of Bioengineering at Oregon State University. Her teaching and research bridge ethics, social justice and engineering with the aim of cultivating an inclusive and socially just engineering profession.
Dr. Kelly earned her BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Arizona and her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Tennessee. She served as an Assistant Professor for 6 years at Syracuse University, and has been an Associate Professor at Oregon State University in the School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering since 2004, where she also served for three and half years as the Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs of the College of Engineering.
http://orcid.org/https://0000-0003-4610-8052
University of New Mexico
[biography]
Susannah C. Davis is a research assistant professor at the University of New Mexico. She holds a Ph.D. and M.Ed. from the University of Washington and a B.A. from Smith College. Her research explores how postsecondary institutions, their faculty, and thei
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