Elevate is expanding capacity to solve persistent challenges in broadening participation in engineering and STEM. We use methodological activism to intentionally leverage research methods to empower marginalized individuals and communities. We promote anti-deficit and asset-based approaches to working with minoritized groups. We challenge the STEM research community to decenter its focus on “fixing” individuals in favor of systemic solutions.
Building on Julie’s NSF CAREER-funded work, Elevate studies how engineering students and faculty utilize their social networks and relationships (i.e., social capital), including how the COVID-19 pandemic affected development of networks that support success. We work to expand research capacity in engineering education and other disciplines through studying mentoring relationships and communities of practice, and by developing practical tools for researchers and teams.
We are asking big questions.
Research on power relationships.
How do the choices we make in designing research studies reproduce or subvert power relationships with participants, and how can we make them more egalitarian?
Research on engagement with participants.
How can we disrupt, reimagine, and abolish the colonial practice of “speaking for” communities in the way we design research studies and authentically engage participants instead?
Research on asset-based approaches.
How can we use research to dismantle deficit-based thinking for marginalized students, faculty, and staff in engineering and promote asset-based approaches instead?
Currently Funded Research
Research Initiation: Engineering Students' Outcome Expectations for Artificial Intelligence (AI) careers: An Exploratory Study
Faculty collaborator: Paul Jensen, University of Michigan
Pandemic Impact: Undergraduates’ Social Capital and Engineering Professional Skills
Faculty collaborators: Kerrie Douglas & Eric Holloway, Purdue University
Building Research Capacity in Engineering Education Through a RIEF Virtual Community of Practice
Download our PEER Guides: Budgets & Budget Justifications; Writing Mentoring Plans for NSF Research Initiation (RIEF) Proposal; NSF No-Cost Extensions; NSF Supplements
This project continues work started under NSF-2029446 Building Foundations for Engineering Faculty in Engineering Education Research (2020-2022).
Faculty collaborators: Karin Jensen, University of Michigan, Sindia Rivera-Jiminez, University of Florida
Recently Concluded Research
Who’s Not At the Table? Building Research Capacity for Underserved Communities in Engineering
Now concluded! Check out our latest publication: Learning in Public and the Path Towards Methodological Activism: A Conversation on Equity Research and our website: https://inclusiveengineering.org/
Faculty collaborator: Amy Slaton, Drexel University
Exploring Non-Normative Forms of Capital, Wealth and Knowledge Used By Engineering Students
Now concluded! Check out our latest publication: A Narrative Inquiry Approach to Community Cultural Wealth of Black Men in Engineering
Approaches to Online Implementation and Social Support in Undergraduate Engineering Courses
Download our Research Based Recommendations for Supporting Students Remotely
Check out our latest publications:
Promoting Student Support in an Online Fundamental of Electronics Course
Faculty collaborator: Kerrie Douglas, Purdue University