Setting a Better Default: Designing a Welcome Academy for New Faculty Centered on Inclusive Teaching in Engineering

Abstract

This design case describes a Welcome Academy for New Faculty in Engineering. To situate the design, this work is mo- tivated by the documented need to make STEM education more inclusive. This need has prompted extensive research on best practices for inclusive teaching, but less is known about how to translate that research into actual teaching practice. This design case addresses that difficulty. Influenced by Thaler and Sunstein’s theory of nudging, the Welcome Academy resets the default to expect inclusive teaching. To develop the design, we organized an off-campus summit to solicit input from current engineering faculty on the question, “What do new engineering faculty need to know about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)?” That input guided the creation of a four-hour workshop, delivered the morning after campus-wide new faculty orientation, that included an icebreaker, basic campus demographics, curated DEI-related resources, a campus tour emphasizing historical power dy- namics, and presentations by current engineering students. To depict the experience of the design, we describe the final implementation, which varied from the design at points, and the unanimously positive feedback from new faculty. That feedback, however, was not the result of a flawless implementation: We also describe a number of failures that will improve subsequent iterations of the Welcome Academy, emphasizing the importance of communication, respect, and flexibility.