Malini Natarajarathinam, Michael Johnson, Lance White, Sara Amani, Samantha Ray, Larry Powell, Tracy Hammond, Shawna Thomas, Robert Lightfoot, Rachelle Pedersen, J. Michael Moore,
American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN, USA, August 2022.
Abstract: This “lessons learned” paper discusses the use of virtual watch parties to facilitate discussions and foster diversity and inclusivity among faculty. Over several sessions, faculty from multiple disciplines, including a majority from engineering, across Texas A&M University watched and discussed the documentary “Picture a Scientist.” These watch sessions were hosted by the Institute for Engineering Education and Innovation within Texas A&M University with the purpose of building a community that considers and discusses diversity and inclusivity, both among its members and in their classrooms. While it has been encouraged for faculty to see films like “Picture a Scientist,” this was the first time a targeted series of watch parties were organized with intentional time for discussion.
As a group, faculty watched and discussed “Picture a Scientist” together over three one-hour-long sessions. Each session was split into two parts: 20 to view a portion of the documentary and 40 minutes for discussion. While the film could have been viewed in fewer sessions, it was deliberately split this way to provide more time for discussion among faculty about diversity and inclusion issues raised by the film. Session discussions were facilitated by long-standing members of this faculty group who represent the diverse population at Texas A&M University.
These sessions created an intentional time and space among participating faculty to expose themselves to, explore, and learn about a broad range of social topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. They also had the time and space to consider how those topics directly impact their classrooms, their students, and their places of work. During these discussions, faculty felt compelled to share stories, experiences, information, and ideas about social issues affecting their work, each other, and their larger community as they pertained to the content discussed in “Picture a Scientist” for that session.
The three sessions were audio-recorded and transcribed via the virtual meeting client Zoom. The final draft of the paper will include results from the analysis of these transcripts. We believe that these watch parties are a unique mechanism to develop engagement and promote diversity, equity, and inclusivity-focused mindsets among engineering educators in a safe space where participants can freely discuss these social issues as they pertain to the academic and professional aspects of their lives. The results will be presented as a “lightning talk”.
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