Action on Diversity: A Content Analysis of ASEE Conference Papers, 2015–2016

Abstract

In recent years, the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) has made several attempts to advance efforts that promote diversity and inclusion in the engineering education community. Part of these efforts have included creating a Diversity Committee in 2011; declaring 2014-2015 as the Year of ACTION on Diversity; and establishing the Best Diversity Paper Award in 2015. Prior to these actions, diversity efforts were primarily relegated to a few divisions: International Division, Minority in Engineering Division, Two-year College Division, Women in Engineering Division, and Pre-College Engineering Education Division; each of which is recognized by ASEE for having made a “specific commitment” to diversity. Appropriately, the charge of the Diversity Committee is to encourage additional divisions to get more involved in featuring diversity and inclusion in their work. To assist ASEE in this effort, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways in which members of ASEE address diversity by analyzing papers published in the proceedings of the annual conference. Further, to assist community members who wish to contribute to this conversation during future conferences, our research asks the following questions: What are the common profiles of diversity-related conference papers published in ASEE? And in what ways can additional member divisions help expand this profile?

We address these questions by conducting a content analysis of over 200 diversity-related publications in ASEE from the 2015 and 2016 conferences. These years were selected because they coincide with the Year of ACTION in Diversity declared by ASEE and subsequent creation of the Best Diversity Paper Award. In addition to focusing on papers nominated for the Best Diversity Paper Award, we also focus on papers from the Minority in Engineering Division (MIND) and Women in Engineering Division (WIED). We selected these divisions based on their long-standing commitment to diversity. This decision was also informed by the dichotomous approach to broadening participation (i.e., emphasizing women & minorities as different groups) traditionally taken by the field of engineering: focusing on MIND and WIED provides an opportunity to also explore the implications of this approach with regard to intersectionality. To complete the content analysis, one author reviewed and coded each conference paper after our research team co-developed and refined a codebook. Our analysis focused on the following aspects of each paper: (1) ASEE division; (2) paper type (i.e., research, practice or theory); (3) study rationale; (4) demographic of interest; (5) setting or environment; (6) research or assessment methodology; (7) framework or theory; (8) research questions; and (9) implications & recommendations. The results of this study will provide an overview of the ways in which ASEE is currently discussing and addressing diversity in engineering; highlight ways in which additional member divisions can be involved; summarize which demographics are included and not included in these efforts; and inform future efforts of ASEE members.