CAREER: Learning from Black Intellectualism: Broadening Epistemic Foundations in Engineering Education to Empower Black Students and Faculty

The current discourse around the minimal presence of Black people in engineering is framed in terms of underrepresentation–the disparity between Black people’s demographic representation in the general populace and within the discipline. However, this narrative preserves Whiteness by passively neglecting the culture of racism in engineering. A discourse centered on who can be physically included without engaging the implications of power in knowledge production neglects the ways Black people are forced to give meaning to their experiences through the lens of Whiteness. Recent scholarship within engineering education suggests a need for (1) a modern, reparatory framework for helping engineering faculty and students understand political implications of engineering knowledge; and (2) an equity-focused resource to foster constructive evaluation of teaching. This project will provide race-conscious resources paired with discussion and tools to assist faculty in translating the research into practice in ways that feel authentic to them. The evaluation tool will help faculty implement reliable and timely mechanisms for understanding how students experience their learning environments in ways that support actionable change. Furthermore, this work aligns with the Broadening Participation in Engineering program because it will increase faculty’s sense of belonging in engineering by connecting with other faculty who desire to increase equity, and by providing support which affirms the value and importance of this work. Additionally, the integration of students’ voices into decision-making processes and the integration of cultural and political considerations enhances the inclusion of non-White engineering students. This CAREER project will 1) examine the effects of recasting engineering knowledge through the legacy of Black intellectualism, and 2) advance educational justice by countering the epistemic violence within engineering and its sense-making practices. The anticipated outcomes of this study will equip engineering faculty with tools for equitable instruction, and more importantly, enhance Black students’ sense of belonging by bridging the gap between their engineering learning and social reality. Fugitive pedagogy will be used to investigate engineering faculty epistemic norms and explore ways to reconstruct disciplinary knowledge through Black intellectualism. The project will implement a social design experimentation methodology to study how engineering education can be transformed toward epistemic equity. Epistemic equity is operationalized through the idea of re-politicizing–grappling with cultural and political implications of technical systems–engineering courses and curriculum. The overarching question guiding the research plan is: How can Black intellectualism be used to re-politicize engineering pedagogy? Engineering faculty will develop a schema (Phase 1), engage in revising a course based on the schema (Phase 2), and develop a teaching evaluation tool to assess the outcomes (Phase 3). Phases 2 and 3 will be repeated in an iterative cycle three times, centering faculty and student voice is the hallmark of the integrated research and education plans. The findings from this project will be disseminated through workshops on partnership with the University of Michigan’s Office of Culture, Community, and Equity (OCCE), Center for Research on Learning & Teaching in Engineering (CRLT-ENGIN), and the American Society for Engineering Education’s Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CDEI). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.