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A Critical Reflection On The Importance Of Education For Sustainable Development, Daniel Kamphambale, Lucia Morales, Cormac H. Macmahon, Jon-Hans Coetzer

Irish Journal of Academic Practice

The United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development highlights the value of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in enabling societal progress. Contemporary society needs to consider sustainable development in a broader context where equity, diversity, and inclusion are integral to design of educational systems. Education can act as a disruptor that brings change to existing economic growth models misaligned with the needs and demands of modern society. As we transition to economic models that are more attuned to the needs of global society and planet, access to education, natural resources, and human talent is crucial for sustaining development, and …

Lgbtq+ Safe Zone Ally Workshop, Rocio Chavela Guerra, Stephanie Farrell

Workshops

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) individuals have historically faced harassment, exclusionary behavior, and discrimination in many aspects of their lives, including in educational settings. This workshop will equip participants with the knowledge and tools to (1) recognize the negative impact of bias and heterosexual/cisgender privilege on the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals; (2) recognize challenges faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in STEM fields; (3) identify strategies for creating an inclusive and affirming environment; and (4) formulate a plan to become an ally for LGBTQ+ individuals. The workshop is open to students, faculty, and the professional community in STEM fields and …

Do We Unwittingly Exclude Students? A Case Study To Evaluate An Engineering Test For Inclusivity., Sofie Craps, Mieke Cannaerts, Greet Langie

Research Papers

Engineering stereotypes can hinder different groups to identify with and choose for engineering. The stereotypical image, often characterised as male, white and harsh technical oriented, can negatively impact students’ perception of engineering as a field to which they can belong. Recently, PREFER tests were designed to increase students’ awareness of the different roles an engineer can take on and of the importance of professional competencies in engineering. Research indicated that the tests were gendersensitive, meaning that females had other role preferences than males. These results inspired a follow up project to investigate how the tests can be used as instruments …

How Diverse Are Global Perspectives On Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In Engineering Education?, Jan Van Maele, Becky Bergman, Inês Direito, Homero Murzi

Workshops

The SEFI Special Interest Group on Gender & Diversity has recently been renamed as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, broadening the definition from a focus on gender to embrace a wider range of diverse identities – such as language and cultural background, religion, physical ability, and socioeconomic status – and to promote and support equity and inclusive practices within SEFI and beyond. In the process of redefining the Special Interest Group’s mission, it has become clear that definitions of diversity, equity and inclusion may vary considerably between different contexts and institutions. Therefore, it is relevant for the engineering education community to …

Promoting Awareness Of, And Sharing Good Practices On, Supporting Engineering Students With Disabilities, Natalie Wint, Gillian Saunders-Smits, Roger Penlington

Workshops

No abstract provided.

Questioning Implicit Assumptions – Proactively Fostering Inclusion In Engineering Activity Design, Ashlee Pearson, Jessica Deters

Workshops

Within discussions of inclusion work in engineering education, calls have been made to shift to a shared responsibility model where all are responsible for proactively fostering inclusive environments. In an academic setting, it is through pro-active design of learning activities that academics can pre-emptively meet the needs of diverse students such that they may feel included. This design work often relies on academics being educated or aware of what is inclusive or exclusive for different groups that have traditionally underrepresented identities and lived experiences. However, academics do not always possess this information. This workshop proposes an approach that asks academics …

Inclusive Engineering Classrooms: Student Teaching Assistants’ Perspectives, Joelyn De Lima, Siara Isaac, Helena Kovacs

Research Papers

Inclusive teaching is the intentional practice of recognising biases, working to mitigate their impact, and ensuring that students have equitable learning opportunities. In addition to improving students' sense of belonging and self efficacy, inclusive teaching improves retention, improves academic performance, and reduces achievement gaps. In many large enrollment introductory classrooms, student teaching assistants (TAs) contribute to the classroom climate in addition to the teachers and the students. In this qualitative study, 262 TAs were asked about their teaching strengths, areas that need improvement, obstacles, and ideas about their role in reducing incidents of discrimination or harassment. We coded their open-ended …

Disruptions To The “Modeled Minority” In Engineering: Why Do Some Asian American Students Leave Engineering?, Michelle Choi Ausman, Qin Zhu

Research Papers

Asian American students are the largest non-White racial group in US undergraduate engineering, but they are often labeled as the "model minority." This stereotype confines them to STEM majors, limiting their access to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Little attention has been given to why some Asian American students leave engineering. To address this gap, a pilot study using semi-structured interviews aims to explore the reasons behind their decision to leave the field or change their major. The study seeks to contribute to engineering education scholarship by promoting more inclusive learning environments for Asian American students and providing recommendations …

Engineering Society: The Role Of Intersectional Gender And Diversity Studies For A Sustainable Transformation On The Case Of Interdisciplinary Engineering Education, Jennifer Bosen, Sebastian Bernhard, Evamaria Fauster, Marie Decker, Miriam Lämmerhirt, Carmen Leicht-Scholten

Practice Papers

Technological innovations are impacting societies in manifold ways and can accelerate a transformation toward sustainability. To enable a sustainable transformation through engineering, engineers educated to create technological solutions for global challenges must be educated in sustainability principles as postulated under ‘Education for Sustainable Development’ (ESD) in the Agenda for Sustainable Development. In technological fields, the ecological, as well as the economical perspective of sustainability, are often addressed, but as recent research has highlighted, sustainability needs to be addressed holistically; this means including the social dimension to a greater degree and applying an intersectional understanding of gender and diversity throughout all …

Inclusion In Computing Via The Early Research Scholars Program At Uic, Renata Alejandra Revelo Alonso, Diana Diaz Herrera, Anastasiia Rozhkova, Joseph Hummel

Practice Papers

For a sustainable world, all people who aspire to be engineers should have an equitable opportunity to achieve their engineering education. In the United States, groups of individuals continue to be minoritized in engineering and computing specifically. This practice paper addresses inclusion and diversity efforts in the computing field, within two departments of a college of engineering, to 1) increase the number of minoritized students in computing, 2) introduce research as a career path to undergraduates early on in their education, and 3) nurture a sense of community (within the department and the computing field) for students. These efforts are …

A New Approach To Encourage The Next Generation Of Female Engineers In Spain: A Young And Fresh Podcast To Attract More Girls To The Field: “Clau, Quiero Ser Ingeniera”, Marta Olea, Francisco Javier Jiménez Leube, Claudia Rebollo

Practice Papers

The underrepresentation of women in STEM fields is a complex issue with multiple factors that remain unclear. At Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), we have dedicated years to devising strategies aimed at attracting more girls to this domain. As the coordinating institution of the EELISA alliance, where we endeavor to define the European engineer, we confront gender inequality as one of the foremost challenges. To address this need, a 4th year student at UPM conceived an initiative: a podcast with three primary objectives. Firstly, it aims to highlight the accomplishments of female engineers who can serve as role models for …

The Immersive Placement Experience: Sink Or Swim?, Mohammed Shaikh, Abed Alaswad, Sarah Junaid

Practice Papers

To excel in their respective engineering fields, engineering students need to be equipped with a combination of technical and interpersonal skills. Central to excellent interpersonal skills is good communication. The aim of the study is to evaluate how well-prepared mechanical and design engineering students felt entering into their industrial placements, using a UK university as a pilot case study. For the study interviews were carried out with final year students who had previously completed an industrial placement year, focussing on communication, workplace diversity, technical working methods and university teaching styles. Reponses were anonymised, coded and analysed using quantitative and qualitative …

Attracting Talent Through Sustainability: Leading Question - Does Sustainability Help Attract And Retain Talent, Ralf Burbach, Julia Lenz, Stefan Joos

Books / Book chapters

Facing significant talent shortages, many hospitality organisations struggle to attract, develop, and retain talent, and ultimately are not able to develop sustainable talent pipelines. In this chapter, we consider how organisations in the hospitality industry can introduce sustainable practices to manage talent. The chapter first presents an overview of the meaning of talent and talent management. We then introduce sustainability in the context of talent management and present three aspects that relate to a sustainable approach: (1) diverse and creative talent, (2) employer branding and employee value proposition, and (3) coopetition as an alternative to the competitive narrative in the …

Handbook Of Diversity And Intercultural Inclusivity For Hospitality At Tu Dublin, Fernanda Lima Rabelo, Ana Maria Vieira Fernandes, Mariia Perelygina

Other resources

This handbook is the final output of the research project Diversity & Intercultural Inclusion in Hospitality (D&ICIH), a TU Dublin’s EDI-funded project that aimed to understand the challenges, barriers, and cultural differences that migrant workers experiences in cafes, cafeterias, catering services and restaurants on university campuses experiences. The research also focused on exploring the gender dimension of how migrant women perceive hospitality work, combined with an intersectionality approach (with a focus on gender and socio-economic status) looking to identify multiple factors of advantages and disadvantages in work and life with in-depth and thematic interviews. The Handbook particularly focuses on two …

Using The Hero’S Journey Monomyth Framework To Understand Students’ Engineering Experiences, Shannon Chance, Inês Direito, Bill Williams

Conference Papers

The Hero’s Journey framework has been used by prior scholars to conduct research in engineering and science education. This framework, when used for motif coding, can help identify and organize crucial aspects of a student’s narrative about their trajectory in engineering education. Following this coding technique with narrative smoothing provides a way to convey the story meaningfully and memorably. Our research team recently used this method to study a longitudinal set of interviews conducted with an Irish woman, and we herein extend the value of that work by analyzing the interview of a Kuwaiti woman studying at the same institution …

Supporting Women In Engineering And Technology Through A Collaborative Practice And Support Network Using Targeted Interventions, Michelle Looby, Marie Armstrong, Una Beagon, Emma M Dunne, Svetlana Hensman, Farrah Higgins, Paula Kelly, Isabelle Killane, Susan Lynott, Orla Mcmahon, Bahareh Pahlevanzadeh

Practice Papers

Despite ongoing efforts to recruit and retain women in third level engineering programmes in Ireland, there is still a lack of diversity in these programmes with typically fewer than 20% of students being female. This paper will describe the evolution of a female focused university wide network called WITU (Women in Technology United), which aims to retain female students in engineering and technology programmes, and to increase the number of gender minorities coming onto these programmes. It is also a response to the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly, SDG 4 (quality education), and SDG 5 (gender equality), and addresses actions highlighted …

Gender Equality In Higher Education And Research, Rodrigo Rosa, Sara Clavero

Articles

No abstract provided.

Reverse Mentoring (Rm) An Effective Way To Advance The Principles Of Equality, Diversity, And Inclusion Across Universities: A Systematic Review Of Literature (Slr), Bhuvan Israni

Papers

Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review of the literature (SLR) was to draw attention towards the various benefits as well as the challenges associated with the adoption of reverse mentoring models in various universities. In addition to this, this SLR will help academicians to understand the perspective of students so as to advance the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion across universities with the potential to help make universities more imaginative and equitable environments for one and all. This paper also proposed to outline future research on this topic, which is around how the organisational culture can play a …

Re-Imagining Higher Education Through Equity, Inclusion And Sustainability: Policy Report, Deirdre Mcquillan

Papers

This report gives recommendations to higher education institutions and policymakers to address issues of equality, diversity and inclusion within the Higher Education sector. The report draws on discussions and papers in the 2nd international conference on equality, diversity and inclusion of the European University of Technology. The conference (RISE 2022) addressed issues of re-imagining higher education through equity, inclusion and sustainability and was hosted by Technical University of Sofia in Sozopol, Bulgaria between 1-3 September 2022.

Re-Imagining Higher Education Through Equity, Inclusion And Sustainability (Rise): 2nd. Eut+ International Conference On Equality, Diversity And Inclusion, European University Of Technology

Conference Proceedings

No abstract provided.

The Seminar As A Site Of Critical Pedagogy: Progressing Equity, Diversity, And Inclusion Across Eut+, Sean Henry, Eleni Pashia, Aurelia Ciupe, Yoana Pavlova, Rositsa Velichkova

Papers

A concern for inclusivity has become a strategic planning of higher education institutions throughout Europe. The purpose of this A key mechanism through which this concern for inclusivity can be realised is through an approach to processes of curriculum design and teaching practice that are informed by the core commitments of critical pedagogy. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the extent to which seminars organised around the themes of inclusivity successfully enacted a critical pedagogical approach in each of our respective contexts. Our paper reflects on our experiences organising and engaging in these seminars with the view …

Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In Engineering Education: An Exploration Of European Higher Education Institutions’ Strategic Frameworks, Resources, And Initiatives, I. Direto, Shannon Chance, L. Clemmensen, S. Craps, S.B. Economides, S.R. Isaac, A.M. Jolly, F.R. Truscott, N. Wint

Conference papers

Significant efforts have been made to promote gender equality in higher education (HE) in Europe. Examples include the establishment of the Athena Swan Charter in the UK in 2005 and the 2019 launch of the Irène Curie Fellowship scheme by Eindhoven University of Technology. But which initiatives address broader diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) challenges in HE? And which are specifically focused on engineering education? This exploratory study aims to improve our understanding of the ways in which a set of European HE Institutions engaged in engineering education address DEI at an organisation level, and how this is communicated within …

Women Studying Engineering Abroad: Intersectionality And Student Support, Shannon Chance, Bill Williams, Inês Direito

Conference papers

What is it like to study engineering in Ireland when you are female and you come from somewhere far away, in the Middle East, which has different social customs and norms? What is your lived experience? What aspects of the experience are common to Middle Eastern women across your course? As education researchers, we aim to understand the essence of the experience these foreign women have had studying engineering in Ireland-what life has been like for them and what unique challenges they have faced that may be invisible to us as instructors. This article reports preliminary analysis of 13 interviews …

An Examination Of Concepts Of School Readiness Among Parents And Educators In Ireland, Maire Mhic Mhathuna, Emer Ring, Noirin Hayes, Patsy Stafford, Siobhan Keegan, Cathy Kelleher, Martina Ozonyia, Mary Moloney, Deirdre Breathnach, Des Carswell, Des Mccafferty, Anne O'Keefe, Aisling Leavy, Ruth Madden

Reports

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs commissioned research through the Irish Research Council (IRC) to examine concepts of school readiness as they are understood by early years educators and managers, primary school principals, junior infant teachers and parents of children participating in the first Free Preschool Year in Ireland. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, involving interviews, an online survey and “draw and tell” sessions with children. Representative samples of FPSY settings and primary schools were selected and an online survey based on the findings of the qualitative phase was sent to 500 pre-primary settings and 500 primary schools. In …

New Irish In The News, Neil O'Boyle, Jim Rogers, Paschal Preston, Franziska Fehr

Irish Communication Review

THIS ARTICLE PRESENTS selected findings from the ‘Media for Diversity and Migrant Integration’ project (hereafter MEDIVA), a European Union funded project involving six Member States (Ireland, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and the UK), which aimed to assess the capacity of media to reflect the increasing ethnocultural diversity of European societies. The specific focus of the project was on Third Country Nationals (TNCs) or persons without European Union citizenship. In this article we present the project’s content findings for Ireland, focusing specifically on representations of TNCs in a range of national print and broadcast outlets.

Form, Function Or Fiction: Gender And Diversity In Engineering Programmes In Ireland, Domhnall Sheridan, Una Beagon, Eabhnat Ni Fhloinn

Conference papers

Messe agus Pangur Bán, cechtar nathar fria shaindán: bíth a menmasam fri seilgg, mu menma céin im shaincheirdd.

I and Pangur Bán, my cat 'Tis a like task we are at; Hunting mice is his delight Hunting words I sit all night.

The poem Pangur Bán [1] was written by an unknown Irish monk in the Benedictine Abbey of Reichenau, in southern Germany in the ninth century. The Abbey, founded in 724 by Saint Pirim, was a centre of learning in Europe for many centuries, reaching its apex under Abbot Berno of Reichenau (1008–48). The Christian church was the sole …

Training And Developing Non-Irish Workers: The Perspectives Of Interested Stakeholders, Mary Prendergast

Articles

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the challenges facing Irish organisations in the training and development of non-Irish workers. It analyses the importance of fluency in the host country’s language and the approach taken by organisations in relation to language training. In-depth semi-structured interviews provide significant insights for the policies and practices of multiple stakeholders.

Design/methodology/approach – The empirical research comprised 33 in-depth interviews conducted with employers, employees, trade unions and regulatory bodies, and an objective content analysis provided insights into the challenges Irish organisations face in the training and development of non-Irish workers.

Findings – The results indicate …

Diversity In The Workplace, Fionnuala Darby

The ITB Journal

According to the preliminary report from the central statistics office concerning the Census 20021 net immigration continues to rise. Net immigration (the balance between inward and outward migration) is estimated to have reached 28,800 in the year to April 2002. The number of immigrants is estimated to have increased to 47,500 in the year to April 2002. The main features of these figures are:  Nearly half of all immigrants originated from outside the EU and USA.  50% of the immigrants were aged 25-44 years.  Returning Irish immigrants continue to be the largest immigrant group, though this share …

An Evaluation Of The Use Of Diversity To Improve The Accuracy Of Predicted Ratings In Recommender Systems, Gillian Browne

Dissertations

The diversity; versus accuracy trade off, has become an important area of research within recommender systems as online retailers attempt to better serve their customers and gain a competitive advantage through an improved customer experience. This dissertation attempted to evaluate the use of diversity measures in predictive models as a means of improving predicted ratings. Research literature outlines a number of influencing factors such as personality, taste, mood and social networks in addition to approaches to the diversity challenge post recommendation. A number of models were applied included DecisionStump, Linear Regression, J48 Decision Tree and Naive Bayes. Various evaluation metrics …

To Stay Or Leave? A Plan For Using Phenomenology To Explore Gender And The Role Of Experiential Learning In Engineering, Shannon Chance, Brian Bowe

Conference papers

No abstract provided.