Majority or Minority: The Impact of Students’ Identities on Their Learning Journeys

Abstract

In this Work-in-Progress paper, we use narrative analysis and grounded theory methods to investigate and expand on our previous analyses of engineering undergraduates’ learning journeys. This study examines the ways in which students process their unique learning experiences to form an individual narrative identity, contributing to a larger understanding of themselves and their identities as learners in the engineering education context. In particular, we focus on how one’s minoritized identity or identities in engineering education are linked to how their narrative identity is formed. Our preliminary analyses of interviews with four engineering students identify a correlation between their majority or minority identity (based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, social and cultural capital) in the engineering education and their learning journey narrative type. Specifically, students with majority identities hold an ‘academic-centered learning journey narrative’ about themselves that is focused on academic schooling, whereas learning journey narratives shared by students with minoritized engineering identity or identities are holistic in nature and are focused on life experiences. These two ways of narrating one’s learning journey represent the types of stories students tell about their learning and their current learning experiences. This work serves to underlie and support engineering educators as they create equitable and holistic learning environments for all students.