Inclusive Learning Through Equity-Driven Approaches to Design in Engineering Education

Despite it being widely acknowledged that integrating principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) in engineering has numerous benefits such as more innovative and inclusive design outcomes, there have been ongoing challenges in addressing equity, promoting diversity, and fostering inclusive teaching and learning strategies in higher education. If EDIA is taught separately from coursework in engineering, students are unlikely to engage with or incorporate EDIA principles in their work. Moreover, the pedagogical approaches for EDIA concepts, which include exploratory discussion and reflection, can be a barrier for student learning if they are not valued in the same way as traditional engineering epistemology and ideologies that prioritize a technical space and objective data. Lastly, evidence demonstrates that a lack of sense of belonging for underrepresented students can impact their learning experience. It is important to address how teaching approaches impact the shift of student mindsets in their design work and their engagement with the learning environment. In this exploratory project, we seek to understand the ways in which learning equity-driven approaches to design, such as design thinking, may impact engineering students’ perceptions of inclusivity in their learning environment and the quality of inclusivity in the work that they design and engineer. We focus on the rationale and development of the methodology in this paper since the work is still in progress. We are working with a diverse team of educators and researchers to review and revise course goals, student learning outcomes and related course content for two design thinking courses in a master’s level engineering program. Changes to the course material include further integrating EDIA principles and the “Liberatory Design framework” described by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design as “a process and practice to liberate designers from habits that perpetuate inequity.” The impact of such revision is examined through qualitative analysis of students’ written reflections with prompts that focus on EDIA themes. A post-course survey is also used to assess students’ perceptions of EDIA in relation to their academic, professional, and personal learning experiences throughout the program and, more specifically, the design thinking course learning outcomes. Preliminary findings suggest that students connect design thinking approaches with an awareness of the value of diversity in their design teams and with more inclusive design outcomes for the end-user. This exploratory work can inspire research to further examine the role of design thinking and related pedagogical approaches in supporting the integration of EDIA principles in teaching engineering design.

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