Increasing the enrolment, retention and success of female students in non-traditional areas:

What strategies can we use to involve staff in developing a more gender- and culturally-inclusive educational environment?

After at least two decades of concern about the low numbers of females in non-traditional fields, they still continue to be under-represented particularly in engineering and science. Various initiatives have been tried in this area, but these have tended to be localised and fragmented. Some of the shortcomings of the fragmented or localised approach are due to (i) volatility, because of dependence on outside money; (ii) over dependence on voluntary input from individual staff members; and, (iii) lack of institution-wide or faculty-wide commitment. A better approach seems to be the appointment of an officer with specific responsibility for developing more gender- and culturally-inclusive approaches to science engineering education. However, even when such an officer is appointed, it is still very difficult to interest science and engineering staff in the concept of inclusive education. The focus of this session will be to discuss specific strategies that have tried to involve staff and to identify reasons as to why they have or have not worked.

Introduction

1. volatility, because of dependence on outside money;
2. over dependence on voluntary input from individual staff members; and,
3. lack of institution-wide or department-wide commitment.

Recent initiatives in Australian universities

A more recent initiative at Curtin University, one that is still operating, is funded from the Higher Education Equity Program money and is entitled Building Educational Diversity in Engineering and Science (BEDES). The aim of this project is to support and coordinate initiatives targeting the development and enhancement of a more gender- and culturally-inclusive educational climate in SMET based courses. This project has more of a retention focus and most of the activities are centred around staff development. A small group of staff are taking part in an Action Learning Set for one semester, where they support each other as they try to identify gender-based problems and make some action plans for improving the situation. Dissemination has also been a major focus for this project. I am the Project Officer, and I am in the process of writing the final report of the outcomes.

The University of Adelaide have taken a different approach to inclusive education in engineering. They have a Women-in-Engineering Program, and as part of this a series of seminars were offered to staff to raise their awareness of gender and diversity issues in the classroom. Following the workshops, six collaborative projects in gender and diversity were initiated across the university. These projects covered areas such as training laboratory demonstrators, examining issues of masculinity in engineering education, examining gender and assessment issues, meeting the needs of students from non-English speaking backgrounds, examining the gender dynamics in laboratory classes and using multimedia to cater for differences in students' technical backgrounds. These projects have been operating throughout 1997 and are yet to report their outcomes.

The University of Ballarat, the University of Technology Sydney and Swinburne University of Technology each have their own women in engineering programs, and have been working collaboratively to produce a checklist for the implementation of inclusive curriculum. The checklist, reported by Whelan and Subic (1996) draws on previous research into the experiences of women and minorities in SMET courses (Moxham & Roberts, 1995) and on the work of Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger and Tarule (1986) whose work looked at women's ways of knowing and learning in educational situations. Swinburne and UTS have used the checklist to examine their current curriculum and suggest changes to make it more inclusive. Whelan and Subic (1996) describe how Ballarat have used the checklist to produce an entirely new course called the Integrated Professional Engineering Degree. The course is integrated in that all aspects of the curriculum, namely the content, the pedagogy and the assessment, are integrated. A number of approaches are taken to ensure the integration across all units in the course. Team teaching strategies have been adopted for all units. Cooperative learning approaches start from the beginning of the course, when in a design unit, students have to design a solar cooker as their first group assignment. The context is inclusive thus and encourages students to consider the human and social aspects of engineering. The course assessment covers a range of assessment styles including interviews with a professional engineer on a topic concerning the social impact of the engineer's role.

The National Centre for Women grew out of a women in engineering program at Swinburne University of Technology, and is now an independent centre offering consultancy to a range of clients both within and outside the University sector. Their primary focus is still to conduct research about issues affecting women in non-traditional areas, but they are involved in a broad range of activities and coordinate the resources and efforts of reform at Swinburne.

Initiatives outside Australia

Dilemma - how do we involve staff in developing a more gender- and culturally-inclusive educational environment

Each of the initiatives outlined in the preceding paragraphs fit into different categories along this continuum. If the overall aim of every initiative is to move in the direction of structural reform to produce long term change and have widespread impact, the dilemma I present is how best to initiate the process, and how to ensure that it moves along the continuum. Clearly the biggest problem is gaining the support of the Head of School or area, because without that support, department and school based efforts can never be successful, and the progress of the reform will never be able to move past the departmental level. Another factor crucial to the implementation of structural reform that is not evident in this model is the importance of policy frameworks to support the initiative. Without policy support, reform is doomed to failure.

Figure 1: Model for the Evolution of Intervention Programs
Source: (Chubin & Malcom, 1996, p. 12)

Conclusions and questions

1. What strategies have you employed to start the process of reform?

2. What mechanisms are currently in place to recognise and reward success in
   1. teaching and learning?
   2. research?
   3. obtaining grants and external funding?
   4. entrepreneurial behaviour?

3. How have you enlisted the support of Heads of School/Deans/DVCs?

4. Is the process of curriculum reform hindered or expedited by current policy?

References

Belenky, M. F., Clinchy, B. M., Goldberger, N. R., & Tarule, J. M. (1986). Women's ways of knowing: The development of self, voice and mind. New York: Basic Books.

Chubin, D. E., & Malcom, S. M. (1996). Policies to promote women in science. In C.-S. Davis, A. B. Ginorio, C. S. Hollenshead, B. B. Lazarus, P. M. Rayman, & Associates (Eds.), The equity equation: Fostering the advancement of women in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering (pp. 1-28). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Collins, D., Bayer, A., & Hirschfeld, D. (1997). Engineering education for women: A chilly climate? Paper presented at the Chicago, Il. [ref. incomplete]

Cukier, W. (1993). Equity curriculum for engineering students: a pilot project. In S. Haggerty & A. Holmes (Eds.), Transforming Science and Technology: Our Future Depends On It. Contributions to the Seventh International Gender and Science and Technology Conference, 2 (pp. 592-600). Canada: The University of Waterloo Ontario Canada.

Cumming, S. M., & Hendricks, M. l. (1993). Recruiting females into physical science and engineering programs at the university level: A literature survey. In S. Haggerty & A. Holmes (Eds.), Transforming Science and Technology: Our Future Depends On It. Contributions to the Seventh International Gender and Science and Technology Conference, 2 (pp. 602-610). Canada: The University of Waterloo Ontario Canada.

Davis, C.-S., & Hollenshead, C. (1993). Marian Sarah Parker scholars: A pipeline program for undergraduate women in engineering. In S. Haggerty & A. Holmes (Eds.), Transforming Science and Technology: Our Future Depends On It. Contributions to the Seventh International Gender and Science and Technology Conference, 2 (pp. 722-729). Canada: The University of Waterloo Ontario Canada.

Davis, C.-S., & Rosser, S. V. (1996). Program and curricular interventions. In C.-S. Davis, A. B. Ginorio, C. S. Hollenshead, B. B. Lazarus, P. M. Rayman, & Associates (Eds.), The equity equation: Fostering the advancement of women in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering (pp. 232-264). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Davis, F., & Steiger, A. (1993). Feminist pedagogy in the physical sciences: A research report. In S. Haggerty & A. Holmes (Eds.), Transforming Science and Technology: Our Future Depends On It. Contributions to the Seventh International Gender and Science and Technology Conference., 2 (pp. 730-739). Canada: The University of Waterloo Ontario Canada.

Dench, S. J. (1993). Mentoring for women in engineering: A case study. In S. Haggerty & A. Holmes (Eds.), Transforming Science and Technology: Our Future Depends On It. Contributions to the Seventh International Gender and Science and Technology Conference, 2 (pp. 614-620). Canada: The University of Waterloo Ontario Canada.

Emms, J., & Kirkup, G. (1993). Establishing mentor schemes. In S. Haggerty & A. Holmes (Eds.), Transforming Science and Technology: Our Future Depends On It. Contributions to the Seventh International Gender and Science and Technology Conference, 1 . Canada: The University of Waterloo Ontario Canada.

Hackett, R. K., & Martin, G. R. (1997). Faculty support for minority engineering programs. Paper presented at the Chicago, Il. [ref. incomplete]

Moxham, S., & Roberts, P. (1995). Gender in the engineering curriculum. Melbourne, Vic: The Equal Opportunity Unit, The University of Melbourne, Swinburne University of Technology, and the Univrsity of Ballarat.

Rogers, P. (1995). Putting theory into practice. In P. Rogers & G. Kaiser (Eds.), Equity in mathematics education: Influences of feminism and culture (pp. 175-185). London: The Falmer Press.

Seymour, E. (1995). Revisiting the "Problem iceberg": Science, mathematics and engineering students still chilled out. Journal of College Science Teaching, 24(6), 392-400.

Sherriff, B. L. (1993). The University of Manitoba access program for women in science and engineering. In S. Haggerty & A. Holmes (Eds.), Transforming Science and Technology: Our Future Depends On It. Contributions to the Seventh International Gender and Science and Technology Conference, 1 (pp. 129-137). Canada: The University of Waterloo Ontario Canada.

Vetter, B. M. (1996). Myths and realities of women's progress in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering. In C.-S. Davis, A. B. Ginorio, C. S. Hollenshead, B. B. Lazarus, P. M. Rayman, & Associates (Eds.), The equity equation: Fostering the advancement of women in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering (pp. 29-56). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Whelan, K., & Subic, A. (1996). Some approaches to gender inclusiveness in integrated engineering education. In E. Godfrey (Ed.), Second Australasia and South Pacific Region GASAT Conference, (pp. 163-171). Auckland College of Education, Auckland: Liaison Office for Women in the Physical Sciences and Engineering, The University of Auckland.