Administrator’s perspectives on an engineering program aimed at broadening participation.

Jeanette Chipps; Stacy S. Klein-Gardner

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE) Technical Session 7: Partnerships Making It Real! II
Tagged Division: Pre-College Engineering Education Division (PCEE)
Page Count: 11
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42581
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/42581
Download Count: 134

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Paper Authors

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Jeanette Chipps Johns Hopkins University orcid.org/0000-0002-9029-2304

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Jeannie Chipps is a research assistant at the IDEALS institute at Johns Hopkins. Her interests are in supporting teachers in their efforts to create learning environments that support diverse learners in STEM.

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biography

Stacy S. Klein-Gardner Vanderbilt University orcid.org/0000-0002-3541-9173

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Dr. Stacy Klein-Gardner serves as an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. She is the co-PI and co-Director of the NSF-funded Engineering For Us All (e4usa) project. She is also the co-PI and co-Director of the Youth Engineering Solutions (YES) Middle School project focusing on engineering and computational thinking. Dr. Klein-Gardner is a Fellow of ASEE.

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Abstract

This work explores the experiences of administrators supporting teachers in the [redacted] program which emphasizes broadening participation in engineering at the high school level. In order to understand how efforts to broaden participation can leverage multiple levels of the school system, this work sought to identify the experiences of administrators. Two rounds of convenience samples of administrators in public and independent schools occurred in spring and fall of 2022. This recruitment led to two focus groups (with both public and independent school administrators) and a single administrator interview (independent school). During these conversations, administrators were asked to reflect on the implementation of the [redacted] program at their school, their personal experiences with this process, and barriers or suggestions in expanding this program both locally and more broadly. The transcripts of these interviews and focus groups were analyzed using descriptive coding (Saldaña, 2014) by two researchers. The researchers then met and compared codes to ensure inter-rater reliability with a percent agreement above 90%. During this process the codes were categorized and then emergent themes were identified. The findings indicate that administrators have a range of personal experience with implementing this engineering program, and that often these experiences were reported as a benefit to the entire school. For instance, administrators often referred to connections made to local universities by or as a result of the program, which then served as a positive outcome for the school at large. This suggests that a multifaceted approach to implementing engineering courses at the high school level which includes curriculum as well as human connections is seen as a benefit by administrators. Administrators also refer to the coursework and teacher actions as supporting the goal of broadening participation by speaking about specific engineering projects that engage a variety of learners, mostly through the type of project employed within the course. Finally, the administrators identified potential barriers to implementing engineering programs on their campus, with most barriers relating to teacher staffing issues, such as the need to engage in professional development to train these teachers externally. The themes that emerged from these various administrators perspectives provide an understanding of how to approach broadening participation through leveraging the role of administrators and how to encourage communication within the school system to create more access for students both to enroll in the engineering courses and to see a future self within engineering.

Citation
Format

Chipps, J., & Klein-Gardner, S. S. (2023, June), Administrator’s perspectives on an engineering program aimed at broadening participation. Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42581

TY - CPAPER
AB - This work explores the experiences of administrators supporting teachers in the [redacted] program which emphasizes broadening participation in engineering at the high school level. In order to understand how efforts to broaden participation can leverage multiple levels of the school system, this work sought to identify the experiences of administrators. Two rounds of convenience samples of administrators in public and independent schools occurred in spring and fall of 2022. This recruitment led to two focus groups (with both public and independent school administrators) and a single administrator interview (independent school). During these conversations, administrators were asked to reflect on the implementation of the [redacted] program at their school, their personal experiences with this process, and barriers or suggestions in expanding this program both locally and more broadly. The transcripts of these interviews and focus groups were analyzed using descriptive coding (Saldaña, 2014) by two researchers. The researchers then met and compared codes to ensure inter-rater reliability with a percent agreement above 90%. During this process the codes were categorized and then emergent themes were identified. The findings indicate that administrators have a range of personal experience with implementing this engineering program, and that often these experiences were reported as a benefit to the entire school. For instance, administrators often referred to connections made to local universities by or as a result of the program, which then served as a positive outcome for the school at large. This suggests that a multifaceted approach to implementing engineering courses at the high school level which includes curriculum as well as human connections is seen as a benefit by administrators. Administrators also refer to the coursework and teacher actions as supporting the goal of broadening participation by speaking about specific engineering projects that engage a variety of learners, mostly through the type of project employed within the course. Finally, the administrators identified potential barriers to implementing engineering programs on their campus, with most barriers relating to teacher staffing issues, such as the need to engage in professional development to train these teachers externally. The themes that emerged from these various administrators perspectives provide an understanding of how to approach broadening participation through leveraging the role of administrators and how to encourage communication within the school system to create more access for students both to enroll in the engineering courses and to see a future self within engineering.

AU - Jeanette Chipps
AU - Stacy S. Klein-Gardner
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Administrator’s perspectives on an engineering program aimed at broadening participation.
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/42581
DO - 10.18260/1-2--42581
ER -