BPC-DP: BPC Education Hub: Resources and Research to Support Inclusive Mentoring and Teaching

There is a wealth of research affirming the critical importance of inclusive learning environments and supportive relationships with faculty on student success, particularly for students from groups underrepresented in computing. However, faculty members and teaching assistants often receive little, if any, training on how their interactions with students may support or threaten equity.

The lack of resources and structures to train individuals in inclusive teaching and mentoring practices is a barrier to advancing Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) efforts. BPC Education Hub will equip educators with the appropriate training to advance their knowledge and skills in understanding social and structural barriers to BPC with the aim of fostering more inclusive learning environments.

The project addresses two critical positions within the computing community—teaching assistants (TAs) and prospective faculty members (current graduate students or postdoctoral scholars) because of their regular contact with students and their increasing responsibilities amidst the rising enrollment boom. The team will develop a landscape study of BPC training in computing departments across the country, measure the effectiveness of BPC training interventions, and examine attitudes of TAs and prospective faculty regarding their approach, buy-in, and self-efficacy to cultivate inclusive learning environments through mentoring and teaching practices.

Through these interventions, the project has the potential to train a cadre of change agents who will shape current and future learning environments for all computing students.

This BPC Demonstration Project has three primary aims. First, it aims to understand the landscape of BPC training in computing departments and to identify barriers and opportunities for institutionalizing BPC education. Second, it will evaluate the efficacy of three interventions: an existing TA training workshop, an existing TA Training course, and a new course for prospective faculty.

Lastly, the third aim is to examine attitudes of TAs and prospective faculty regarding their approach, buy-in, and self-efficacy to cultivate inclusive learning environments through mentoring and teaching practices. Collectively, the project will revise, research, and disseminate content for TA and prospective faculty training to create a multi-pronged approach to BPC education to expand inclusive mentoring and teaching.

The project will advance knowledge in several key areas: (1) understanding the landscape for BPC training and identifying institutional opportunities and barriers to BPC education, (2) evaluating curriculum and delivery mechanisms for training TAs and prospective faculty, and (3) examining attitudes and self-efficacy regarding BPC education.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.