The Impact of Inclusive Excellence Programs on the Development of Engineering Identity among First-Year Underrepresented Students

The desire to broaden diversity in engineering has permeated STEM discourse and engineering education for decades. National leaders and funding agencies have given attention, priority and inducements to increase diversity in engineering. Yet, even with pervasive college-based initiatives aimed at broadening participation, national results remain stagnant. In the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado Boulder, an NSF-sponsored research project is creating a system-based model with elements and practices that could be applied to begin to alleviate the shortfall of diverse students in U.S. engineering schools. “Inclusive excellence” refers to creating pathways to and through engineering that promote success for a highly diverse student body through learning communities, engaging academics and innovative policies. The Inclusive Excellence Research Project aims to investigate and define a system of varied pathways to and through engineering composed of three integrated sub-models: Access, Performance and Retention. The data and results presented in this paper represent a glimpse into the larger Inclusive Excellence Research Project, specifically exploring the impact of our first-year curriculum strategy for underrepresented students. The research team posits that early development of professional engineering identity is a critical piece to scaffolding academic excellence and persistence within engineering. Identity development is investigated over time in four key curricular interventions—two short summer bridge programs targeting underrepresented populations, a large first-year engineering design course, and a large introduction to engineering course designed to help students understand various engineering career tracks. A comparison across these interventions begins to reveal elements leading to identity development related to community, team-building, fostering engineering skills and knowledge, and understanding engineering career paths. For each intervention, identity was measured via the Group Identification Survey, a product of the Academic Pathways Study. The survey was administered before and after the two bridge programs and preand post-course for the two first-semester courses—totaling 510 participants across programs. To determine possible correlates of identity, students were also administered additional survey items, influenced in part by the Academic Pathways of People Learning Engineering (APPLE) survey. Four underrepresented populations—underrepresented minorities, women, low-socioeconomic, and first-generation students—were investigated for identity development. Data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance procedures to determine pre to post differences and between demographic groups and programs. Results indicate significant differences in identity development across all four course/programs and specific relationships between demographics as well as additional associated variables. P ge 23207.3 Inclusive Excellence