TY - GEN
T1 - Social and latent identities that contribute to diverse students' belongingness in engineering
AU - Benedict, Brianna
AU - Verdín, Dina
AU - Godwin, Allison
AU - Milton, Thaddeus
N1 - Funding Information:
Despite efforts to diversify the pool of engineering students, the historical gender and cultural norms of engineering persist [1]. It is important that the engineering field becomes more diverse to develop solutions that are innovative, feasible, and usable as well as increase the number of knowledgeable persons within society [2]. The cultural and social norms of engineering and what it means to be an engineer restrict how students may see themselves as the kind of person that can do engineering (i.e., identity) [3]. In engineering, students must navigate the cultural norms and conceptual difficulties of an engineering program while also balancing their individual identities. In this paper, we refer to diversity as both students’ social identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation) and latent diversity (e.g., underlying attitudes, beliefs, and mindsets unique to the particular student). Research suggests that students who feel that their social identities or latent characteristics may be in conflict with espoused engineering norms or engineering ways of being which can lead to a lack of belongingness [4]–[7]. This misalignment can affect whether a student “fits” in an engineering program and can This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under a CAREER Grant No. (1554057). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Funding Information:
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under a CAREER Grant No. (1554057). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 IEEE.
PY - 2017/12/12
Y1 - 2017/12/12
N2 - This work-in-progress (WIP) research paper investigates contributing factors for how students describe what it means to be an engineer and what particular characteristics enable students to belong in engineering. We answer the research question, "What are the key contributing factors that influence how diverse students feel that they belong in engineering?" We used a semi-structured protocol to interview 12 diverse engineering students during Fall 2016 about their pathways into engineering, identities, and belongingness in engineering. The participants were selected from a pool of students who completed an attitudinal survey during Fall 2015 as a part of a larger study. They were purposefully recruited to maximize the number of women, students of color, first-generation college students, students with visible and non-visible disabilities, and LGBTQ+ students. The interviews were coded inductively to understand the emergent themes of how students described their social and individual identities and how they did or did not fit with what it means to be an engineer. The themes are emergent and this work-in-progress paper will describe our findings to date.
AB - This work-in-progress (WIP) research paper investigates contributing factors for how students describe what it means to be an engineer and what particular characteristics enable students to belong in engineering. We answer the research question, "What are the key contributing factors that influence how diverse students feel that they belong in engineering?" We used a semi-structured protocol to interview 12 diverse engineering students during Fall 2016 about their pathways into engineering, identities, and belongingness in engineering. The participants were selected from a pool of students who completed an attitudinal survey during Fall 2015 as a part of a larger study. They were purposefully recruited to maximize the number of women, students of color, first-generation college students, students with visible and non-visible disabilities, and LGBTQ+ students. The interviews were coded inductively to understand the emergent themes of how students described their social and individual identities and how they did or did not fit with what it means to be an engineer. The themes are emergent and this work-in-progress paper will describe our findings to date.
KW - Belongingness
KW - Identity
KW - Latent diversity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85043295644&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85043295644&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/FIE.2017.8190644
DO - 10.1109/FIE.2017.8190644
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85043295644
T3 - Proceedings - Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE
SP - 1
EP - 5
BT - FIE 2017 - Frontiers in Education, Conference Proceedings
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 47th IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE 2017
Y2 - 18 October 2017 through 21 October 2017
ER -