Exploring Student Motivation towards Diversity Education in Engineering

If the engineering education community is serious about improving its culture and climate for underrepresented groups, it is imperative to educate students about the importance of diversity and inclusion. Effectively incorporating diversity-related course content into the curriculum requires an understanding of student knowledge of and attitudes toward diversity. Accordingly, this work-in-progress explores engineering students' beliefs about the intersection of diversity education and the engineering curriculum. Informed by Eccles' Expectancy Value Theory (EVT), the authors pose the following research question: What ability-related beliefs and subjective task values do undergraduate engineering students have in relation to diversity education? This exploratory study resulted in the development of an interview protocol and survey instrument for exploring students' beliefs about diversity as it relates to engineering. Initial findings point to the need for closer examinations of student attitudes in subsequent research. Ultimately, the results of this study will directly informed diversity and inclusion efforts at our local institution.