Promoting a Culture of Inclusion in Graduate Engineering Education: A Case Study

It is well established that equitable participation in graduate programs is not always facilitated for students from all backgrounds, and there is a need to continue improving graduate STEM education practices and research cultures that are characterized as unwelcoming environments. In this chapter, the authors share insights from a 3-year effort to develop, implement, and refine a mandatory seminar course focused on promoting equity in STEM. Over the course of six semesters (i.e., Fall 2019–Spring 2022), the team taught the course to approximately 1500 graduate students from 12 engineering departments at a predominantly White institution, continuously evolving their pedagogical practices based on student experiences and feedback. Part I of this chapter summarizes insights on graduate education that informed the course design. Part II details the course design process. Part III overviews the assessment techniques used to evaluate course effectiveness. And Part IV presents lessons learned from the instructor team’s group reflection on their experiences.