Work in Progress: Expanding the Professional Formation of Engineers through a Cross-Cultural Communication Workshop for First-Year Students

This Work in Progress focuses on a local effort to embed cross-cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills into the professional formation of undergraduate engineering students. In particular, we will provide an overview of a cross-cultural communications workshop that was recently developed for implementation into two living-learning communities for engineering undergraduates at Virginia Tech. These living-learning communities were created to provide social and academic support for first-year female and male engineering students. Combined, these learning communities now support over 600 students, the majority of whom are enrolled in their first-year of college. This also includes a large support team of upperclassmen students (i.e., sophomores, juniors, and seniors) who serve as mentors and committee members. Purpose The work presented here is part of a multi-year plan to impact every student involved in either of the living-learning communities. In this paper, we describe the work to date, which includes our collaboration with faculty in the field of sociology to develop the workshop and assessment results from its initial implementation. We also describe our next steps, which will include implementing a training program for upperclassmen leaders. In addition to the cross-cultural communications workshop, we will develop four more workshops on other topics related to diversity. Each workshop module will be one hour long. Our long-term goal is to have the students in the learning communities trained at a basic level to recognize why an understanding about diversity issues and developing cross-cultural skills is critical for their success. Introduction Both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Academy of Engineers (NAE) have encouraged better efforts from higher education institutions in using both formal and informal methods to revise curricula that focuses on the professional formation of engineers (Downey, 2014). One area of competence where students might benefit substantially pertains to their development of what administrators refer to as “professional” skills. This sentiment is also endorsed by a variety of corporate stakeholders across the engineering industry. For example, Dianne Chong, vice president of engineering, operations, and technology at the Boeing Company, expressed that while “most schools are doing an excellent job producing the technical skills that we need... employers want more than that” (Benderly, 2015). Therefore, our goal is to help students develop these additional skills desired by employers. In addition to the work already being done in the living-learning communities to build the professional skillsets of student participants, we will expand our objectives in this category to focus on including skills related to diversity and inclusion. We believe that this new integration of diversity content will not only make our students more marketable as future engineers, but it will also enable them to make a more significant impact on the field of engineering. Living Learning Community Structure Learning communities have become one of the most commonly used strategies in efforts to promote active learning environments and increase student involvement on college campuses (Shapiro & Levine, 1999). Levine and Shapiro (2000) refer to them as “a variety of curricular approaches that enroll a common cohort of students in linked or clustered courses, often around an interdisciplinary theme” (p. 13). Many of these types of programs are geared toward first-year students, and include participation from upperclassmen peers who serve as advisors or mentors for the targeted cohort (Kellogg, 1999; Tinto, 2004; Turrentine, 2001). Tinto (2003) suggests that students who participate in residential or living-learning communities are often more engaged in classroom settings. They are also able to connect and collaborate with peers in similar disciplines by forming much needed support networks to lessen students’ feelings of social isolation due to the rigors of their particular major (Levine & Shapiro, 2000). Not only have these strategies proven to be effective tools for aiding in student retention, they are also useful for helping majority students address social justice issues affecting their peers who experience marginalization. This work in progress focuses on two living-learning communities geared toward first-year engineering students. The first program was established for female engineering students in 2001, followed by a program for male engineering students in 2004. Both learning communities are currently housed in one residential hall with separate floors for females and males, in addition to one co-ed floor. Students initially commit to a one-year participation agreement with the learning communities followed by an opportunity to continue and or advance in various leadership positions throughout the remainder of their undergraduate careers. In the female living learning community we currently have 204 first year students and 89 upper class leaders. In the male community we have 279 first year students and 68 upper class leaders. The first-year experience focuses on social support and academic skill development that help promote successful transitions from high school to college, as well as encouraging students to begin exploring possibilities for transitioning from college to career. This work is accomplished through a seminar course that includes assignments targeting college success skills, career exploration, and interaction with upperclassmen leaders through peer mentoring and community activities. The second-year experience includes a seminar course designed to provide students with leadership experiences through various types of committee involvement opportunities. Students serve on one of several committees that plan events for first-year students in the respective areas of academic support, K-12 STEM outreach, service-learning, professional development, social activities, and communications. By supporting first-year students these leaders continue to improve their own professional development and academic support skills. Some of these students also serve as mentors to small groups of first year-students that meet once a week for the first ten-weeks of the fall semester. These courses are where work is being done to introduce professional development skills related to topics of diversity. The majority of students who return to the learning community beyond the second year serve on the Leadership Team that supports the second-year program. These student leaders help supervise the various committees and provide mentor training support. Conceptual Frameworks After reviewing multiple conceptual frames related to diversity, we chose two models that seemed most compatible with the objectives of the new curriculum featured in this work in progress. First, we examined Pope, Reynolds, and Mueller’s (2004) multicultural competence (MC) theory. This model is structured in three parts and consists of multicultural awareness, multicultural knowledge, and multicultural skills. The MC frame coincided almost exactly with the new modules we plan to develop shown in Figure 1. Therefore, it emerged as the most appropriate model to use and became our primary framework. Multicultural awareness focuses on an individual’s understanding of their own social identities in comparison with the identities of members from other groups (Pope, Reynolds, & Mueller, 2004). The competency of awareness encourages students to engage in critical reflection about their own underlying assumptions to ensure that individuals with differing cultural perspectives are not invalidated. Multicultural knowledge focuses on the pursuit of cultural knowledge and the comprehension of new and or existing theories regarding race, class, and gender (Pope, Reynolds, & Mueller, 2004). This competency challenges students to educate themselves as much as possible about various cultural groups and any related sub-cultural nuances as strategies for successful organizational management. Multicultural skills places emphasis on an individual’s ability to translate multicultural theory from the conceptual frame to real world practice (Pope, Reynolds, & Mueller, 2004). The skills competency is the quintessential stage of the entire model, because it affirms that students are able to recognize their own cultural biases, understand and critique relevant multicultural theory, and apply those concepts in a practical and meaningful way. Second, we examined Edwards’s (2006) social justice ally identity development model. This framework also consisted of three constructs: 1) aspiring ally for self-interest, 2) aspiring ally for altruism, and 3) ally for social justice. We chose to only integrate aspects from the third frame to provide theoretical support for our new curricular implementation, because this stage of ally identity development aligns more appropriately with our application of the MC model. Edwards’s frame is predicated on the two key concepts of social justice and ally identity, both of which should be examined in detail to provide greater theoretical context (2006). Social justice refers to changing or disrupting systems where members of a dominant social group receive unearned privileges at the expense and subjugation of members from other subordinate groups (McIntosh, 1988). According to Edwards (2006), members of the dominant group are often considered agents of oppressive systems, regardless of their awareness of those realities. However, they may also be disenfranchised by the very same systems they help to maintain. The term ally is defined as “a person in a dominant position of power working toward ending the system that gives power in the interest of a group with which one does not share a particular social identity” (Patel, 2011, p. 78). Therefore, it is incumbent that members of the dominant group work diligently to be