Towards a Framework for Equity in Engineering Classrooms

Abstract

This work-in-progress paper presents a rationale for and initial step towards a framework for understanding equity in engineering classrooms. The utility of the framework is conceived as at the interface between theory, research, and practice, where an important theory-and-research-to-practice agenda exists to better understand how to help engineering instructors enact equity in their classroom settings. We contrast our approach with on the one hand decontextualized theory that is not accessible and engaged with by engineering instructors, and on the other with rudimentary best practice that simplify the complex interactions of the classroom into overly simple rules. Instead, the framework we are building towards guides thinking about equity in the engineering classroom. In its current form, the framework 1) draws on equity related social theory, 2) presents dimensions of engineering pedagogical relationships, and 3) identifies components of classroom practice that are involved in everyday engineering education. In future steps, we hope to refine and validate this framework with participant instructors as part of an ongoing collaborative ethnographic research agenda to look at equity in everyday engineering educational settings.