Types of Role Models for the Frontiers in Education (FIE) Community

In this Special Session participants explore role modeling in the context of IEEE/ASEE Frontiers in Education (FIE). Role models are important in engineering education, due to their being beneficial for those who have them. While educators and other professionals may strive to be role models for others, there is little research in this area to support this goal. How do we talk about role models? How can we reflect on what we can model and how, as individuals and through giving visibility to others? Conferences like FIE are great venues to provide participants with role models. What kind of role models are FIE attendees after? In this special session participants at any career stage are introduced to Grande's theory of role modeling to address these questions.The groups will use Grande's theory to reflect on what kind of role models they would find interesting to look for in FIE. This aims to increase reflection on role modeling by the participants while also informing the organization of the event, who can consider increasing the visibility of the identified potential role models. Participants can later use a similar process to reconsider their role modeling in other areas, e.g. as teachers for their students, managers for their employees, or as conference organizers to analyze what kind of role models they are inviting to their events.