TY - JOUR
T1 - ASEE Safe Zone workshops and Virtual Community of Practice to promote LGBTQ equality in engineering
AU - Farrell, Stephanie
AU - Guerra, Rocio C.Chavela
AU - Longo, Alexandra
AU - Tsanov, Rossen
AU - Cech, Erin A.
AU - Waidzunas, Tom J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Dr. Erin Cech is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan. Before coming to Michigan in 2016, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University and was on faculty at Rice University. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology in 2011 from the University of California, San Diego and undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Sociology from Montana State University. Cech’s research examines cultural mechanisms of inequality reproduction–specifically, how inequality is reproduced through processes that are not overtly discriminatory or coercive, but rather those that are built into seemingly innocuous cultural beliefs and practices. Her work on inequality in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) professions focuses on the recruitment and retention of women, LGBTQ, and racial/ethnic minority persons in STEM degree programs and STEM jobs. Cech’s research is funded by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation, including the first grant ever awarded by NSF to study LGBTQ inclusion in STEM.
Publisher Copyright:
© American Society for Engineering Education, 2017.
PY - 2017/6/24
Y1 - 2017/6/24
N2 - The results discussed in this paper are part of a transformative project that links diversity research with a faculty development initiative to promote LGBTQ equality in engineering. The aims of the project are to (1) identify aspects of engineering culture that present barriers to LGBTQ equality, (2) build knowledge and skills to disrupt discrimination and promote LGBTQ equality in engineering departments on college campuses and (3) to identify best practices for promoting LGBTQ equality in engineering. Safe Zone is a term commonly used in schools and workplaces to describe both a learning experience (workshops) as well as the individuals who have completed the training. Safe Zone workshops create a visible network of LGBTQ-affirming individuals who contribute to creating a positive and inclusive climate. While most Safe Zone initiatives are campus/workplace-wide, the workshops described in this paper were specifically designed for academic engineering departments. Over 270 engineering educators have attended the 20 Safe Zone workshops offered at the ASEE Annual Conference during 2014 and 2015. Evaluation results from these first two years indicated a clear call to expand the workshops and nurture the conversation about LGBTQ inclusion in engineering. To meet this need and to expand the impact of the workshops, a Virtual Community of Practice (VCP) was established through this project in 2015. The VCP redesigned the Level 1 workshops and developed Level 2 workshops with content in-formed by emerging research on LGBTQ inclusion in STEM. The redesigned workshops were launched online in spring 2016 and in person at the ASEE Annual Conference in 2016. This paper presents an update on the overall project and presents the evaluation results of the Safe Zone Level 2 workshops.
AB - The results discussed in this paper are part of a transformative project that links diversity research with a faculty development initiative to promote LGBTQ equality in engineering. The aims of the project are to (1) identify aspects of engineering culture that present barriers to LGBTQ equality, (2) build knowledge and skills to disrupt discrimination and promote LGBTQ equality in engineering departments on college campuses and (3) to identify best practices for promoting LGBTQ equality in engineering. Safe Zone is a term commonly used in schools and workplaces to describe both a learning experience (workshops) as well as the individuals who have completed the training. Safe Zone workshops create a visible network of LGBTQ-affirming individuals who contribute to creating a positive and inclusive climate. While most Safe Zone initiatives are campus/workplace-wide, the workshops described in this paper were specifically designed for academic engineering departments. Over 270 engineering educators have attended the 20 Safe Zone workshops offered at the ASEE Annual Conference during 2014 and 2015. Evaluation results from these first two years indicated a clear call to expand the workshops and nurture the conversation about LGBTQ inclusion in engineering. To meet this need and to expand the impact of the workshops, a Virtual Community of Practice (VCP) was established through this project in 2015. The VCP redesigned the Level 1 workshops and developed Level 2 workshops with content in-formed by emerging research on LGBTQ inclusion in STEM. The redesigned workshops were launched online in spring 2016 and in person at the ASEE Annual Conference in 2016. This paper presents an update on the overall project and presents the evaluation results of the Safe Zone Level 2 workshops.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85030562228&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85030562228&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85030562228
SN - 2153-5965
VL - 2017-June
JO - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
JF - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
T2 - 124th ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition
Y2 - 25 June 2017 through 28 June 2017
ER -