In the context of engineering education, broadening participation explores recruitment and retention while asking who’s involved at the same time. The first question to address is how we get people and in the case of broadening participation, a diverse group of people, interested in engineering so that they choose an engineering field as their major in college. Diversity is an all-encompassing term to describe anyone who’s not a white, able-bodied, at least middle-class man. Some suggestions of getting more people involved in engineering is Maker Spaces.
Maker Spaces are designed to provide resources to those who normally would not have access to them. As novel as this idea is, it often falls short in practice. Resources, such as an accessible location and start-up/maintaining money, are needed to get a Maker Space up and running. The technology that often entices new students needs someone to operate it and train others on how to use often expensive equipment. As a result, these spaces without adequate resources are not equal to those can afford such novelties.
Another aspect of broadening participation that all engineering educators should be aware of is the language we use in recruitment and retention. Analogies such as pipelines, pathways, and ecosystems are to describe the experiences students have during their K-12 education, during undergrad, and within engineering. Each metaphor depends on the context of which part of the system is being analyzed and what underrepresented minority group as student is a part of. Pipelines have received many critiques due what are considered limitations. These relate to the imagery of a pipe not allowing for any change in speed or direction of flow, as well as the idea that some students “leak out” and have no agency along the way. Pathways imply agency, while not necessarily fully describing the experience of the student. Ecosystems are the newest analogy that has been constructed, which incorporates the construct of agency and the interactions a student has with the system they’re a part of. Walter Lee’s editorial on these analogies asserts that all three analogies provide useful information on the engineering education system as paradigms.
Engineering yield is the likelihood that a person graduating from college will do so with an engineering degree. This quantification of diversity in this study point out different metrics by which to analyze who is in engineering and how often they graduate with degrees compared to non-engineering graduates. This perspective on engineering retention revealed something interesting: white women are the least retained minority group. While this group may be perceived as the 'low-hanging fruit', the purpose of diversity and inclusion is to help every underrepresented student.
Broadening participation is a topic that all engineering educators should be aware of and advocate for. This portion of the class was valuable to learn several facets of how researchers, practitioners, and others are attempting to make engineering more diverse. Although the intentions are seeking to take the right steps, continuous checks must be done to ensure that we aren’t doing more damage to an already imperfect system.