How do you create an inclusive technological education provision?

Dr Anne Nortcliffe, Founding Head of School of Engineering, Technology and Design, Canterbury Christ Church University

In 2015 South East Local Enterprise Partnership identified that Schools and College Students interested in pursuing at STEM career were leaving the region to study and not returning to the region post-graduation.  Also, industry in Kent and Medway were reporting they were struggling to retain new STEM graduates recruited into the region.  James (2015) developed the vision of the Kent and Medway Engineering, Design, Growth and Enterprise (EDGE) Hub to provide an holistic and inclusive solution to address the regional skills and sector diversity gap.  TheKent and Medway EDGE Hub was researched and designed by James (2015) to support; promotion of inclusive STEM pipeline from primary school to higher education to industrial employment; increase student STEM participation andsocial mobility in the region through an inclusive STEM higher education curriculum and facilities; regional economic growth through inclusive industrial engagement skills development, innovation, and research. 

Inclusive Curriculum

The initialKent and Medway EDGE Hub project activities were to develop inclusive curriculum.  ACDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate) engineering education pedagogy has been adopted, Figure 1.  The CDIO pedagogy was developed by Crawley et al (2011), the syllabus 2.0 framework requires engineering programmes to embrace diversity boththrough the embedding of;

•   an inclusive engineering curriculum and resources, in particular the decolonise the curriculum, both in terms of language and culture, (Fomunyam, 2017).

•   conceiving, designing, implementing and operating inclusive engineering solutions to problems, (Mills et al, 2008; Perez, 2019),

•   nurturing inclusive behaviors,skills and characteristics in the engineering students, Beddoes (2018)

The latter has been shown to be achieved through in class learning, groupwork activities and student(s) and academic learning facilitation in the formal, semi-formal and informal learning spaces.  Beddoes et al (2018) has developed a Web Toolkit for academic facilitating CDIO engineering education provision.  This Toolkit provides support for engineering  academics in facilitating good inclusion practice in;

•   team formulation on strengths, 

•   team role allocation

•   managing teams

•   creating inclusive project problems

•   peer assessment

The implementation of our engineering education provision also embeds Beddoes (2018) recommendations to implement engineering problems that are an interest all students, all students have the opportunity in groupwork to develop technical and employability skills, i.e. female students are not pigeon holed into project management role.Beichner et al (2003) found it was important that female or minority students were not alone in a group.

In addition, the CDIO education approach has been shown to develop and produce “industry-ready” engineering graduates, Karpe et al (2011).  Therefore, supports Kent and Medway EDGE Hub ambitions to produce employable engineers to support economic growth of the region and nationally.

Inclusive Education Team

To support inclusive educational learning and experience, it is necessary that a diverse and inclusive engineering academic team (academic, technical and professional service staff) is recruited.  This can be achieved by researching and redesigning staff recruitment policy and practice to be more inclusive, (Gaucher et al, 2011).  For example, learning from Gaucher et al(2011) research, if a job advertis feminine encoded the number of female applicants increases, whereas number of male applicants remains the same.  Also ensuring the shorting listing approach adopted is fair and transparent focused on the selection criteria (i.e. job description criteria).  Also, remembering length of service does not equate to technical and employability competence, (Gender, 2006).   Neither the volume of information provided, list of skills without evidence, attendance at conferences and courses is not reflection of technical ability and employability.    Equally adopting a diversity positive interview process, (iBid) through the implementation of an inclusive, gender and culturally diverse interview panels of wide variety of academic, technical and professional service staff and students ensures the interview assessment activities are inclusive.  To maintain inclusive ways of working and practices of the team are implemented and promoted, a regular and continuous programme of staff development is required, for example unconscious bias short-listing (Ritter et al, 2021).

Adopting an inclusive recruitment strategy has resulted the current team of 42 academics, technician and project manager are 44% female and 44% BAME.

Inclusive Student Pipeline

We have found it is key to learn from diverse and inclusive staff recruitment practicesand apply the same methodsto student recruitment marketing materials, resources and activities, (Deschamps-Sonsing, 2020).   With respect to STEM outreach activities in schools and colleges ensure that the STEM learning opportunities are meaningful, positive impact and unbiased to support the short, mid, and long term unbiased pipeline to STEM, (Siani and Dacin, 2018).  Consider a course entry requirements for higher education technological courses, in particular when access to quality Maths and Physics education at STEM level 3 education is regional and social economic in location in the UK, (Nortcliffe et al, 2018 and Nortcliffe et al, 2019). 

Cornock Cook (2017) reported not only 9% 16-18 year olds study A’level Physics, only 3% of these students are female in 2016. It has been identified that the syllabus and teaching is typically gender bias, (Murphy and Whitelegg, 2006; Abraham and Barker, 2020), that is the pedagogical approaches applied are bias that impacts learning of female students studying A’level Physics.  

Further analysis of UK GOV (2021a) statistics for gender engagement in STEM A’level subjects shows the gender gap has grown between female and male, see Table 1, also implies subject and average % increase in STEM engagement.  However, statistics positive percentage picture masks the reality of a falling A’Level student population and in relative number terms less females and males are studyingSTEM A’levels in UK in 2021 than 2017, on average drop of -1% for females and -3% for males, the only exception is Computer Science has increase engagement in both genders, 93%  female and 37% male.

The real positive news is Kent and Medway despite the fallen A’Level student population the number of actual students engaging in STEM A’levels hasincreasedfrom 2017 to 2021 by on average 26% for females and 20% for males, see Table 2, only subject that is an exception is Further Mathematics female engagement has declined -21%.  One hope that this increase and positive impact is a reflection on the significant investment in time and quality of inclusive STEM engagement delivered and promotedas part of strategic investment in Kent and Medway EDGE Hubthrough;

Project Management

Marketing