Engineering Identity Development Research Articles

Technology-rich Engineering Experiences in Indigenous and Rural Schools

Indigenous populations, constituting 6.2% of the global population, face challenges in STEM education due to systemic barriers and limited exposure to science and engineering. Our research, part of a federally funded project, aimed to address these challenges by implementing Community-Based Engineering (CBE) education in an elementary school located on a Native American Reservation in the United States. In this paper, we used CBE as our theoretical framework situating engineering within the context of students' communities and cultures. Our participants included 15 students and two Native American teachers with varying teaching experience. We employed mixed methods and combined quantitative tools such as the Engineering Identity Development Scale and the Engineering Technology subscale of the S-STEM survey, with qualitative data from teacher and student interviews. Our analysis revealed significant changes in students' perceptions of engineering for their communities and their personal engineering identities after they engaged with CBE lessons. We also found that the cultural connections to community were evident in student interviews. Furthermore, teachers appreciated CBE and emphasized that these engineering lessons enrich their rich traditions and practices. This study highlights the effectiveness of CBE and demonstrates how engineering education can be more inclusive and resonant with Indigenous students.

Creating a culture of servingness for Latinx engineering students in Hispanic‐serving community colleges

AbstractThis paper will describe the promise Hispanic‐serving Community Colleges (HSCCs) have for creating a culture of servingness, including curricular and co‐curricular supports, transfer infrastructure, engineering identity development, and other mechanisms that can positively impact Latinx engineering learners. We will outline current research and trends regarding Latinx engineering collegians at HSCCs. In addition, we will provide recommendations for how community college practitioners at HSCCs can promote a culture of servingness and encourage the development of Latinx engineering students.

“That Cross-Curricular Business”: The Engineering Design Process in Mathematics and Science Classrooms

The engineering design process (EDP) is one tool teachers can use to facilitate STEM integration. As part of a larger three-year longitudinal research project regarding engineering identity development among middle school youth in a summer robotics outreach program, this study aims to understand teachers’ willingness to incorporate engineering design in their classrooms through an exploration of their perceptions of the EDP, its applications to their subject matter and classroom context, methods of enacting the EDP, and perceived challenges to and supports for doing so. We conducted a qualitative case study and drew our results from focus groups and semi-structured interviews with eight teacher participants. Participants were successful in describing the EDP and its cyclical nature. However, classroom enactment of the EDP was predominantly indirect and often used to solve non-subject-specific classroom problems. Direct enactment was limited to projects already part of the existing curriculum. Issues with instructional resources, lesson planning, time, and student background were the EDP enactment barriers most frequently noted, while supports described were all responses to the identified barriers. The EDP offers a promising way to integrate engineering with math and science. However, additional support is needed for more meaningful classroom enactment of the EDP.

AN INTERPRETIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ENGINEERING JOURNEY OF A BLACK MALE ENGINEERING MAJOR

Though there have been calls for broadening participation in engineering, the representation of Black males in engineering remains a challenge. Further exacerbating the lack of representation of Black males in engineering is the relative scarcity of literature on the nuanced experiences of Black males. The purpose of this project, which is part of an ongoing study, is to investigate the engineering identity development of Black male engineering undergraduates from the first year through graduation. The guiding research question for this phase of the study was: How does a Black male engineering student come to identify himself as an engineer? Because of the link between engineering identity development and persistence, we reviewed the engineering role identity framework to hone our sensitivity to possible themes that might emerge during the study. To understand the specific, idiographic psychological experiences of Mateo (pseudonym), the sole study participant, we conducted a single-case interpretive phenomenological analysis of three semi-structured individual interviews. We inductively developed five themes to describe Mateo's engineering journey during his first year, including: "got to like being in tough situations," engineering as "eye-opening," becoming, the contribution of others to engineering identity development, and defining success and finding balance. The findings illuminate Mateo's cultural assets, agency, introspection, and resilient engineering identity. In supporting the engineering identity development of Black males, institutions should consider engaging them in practices that encourage reflection, resilience, and agency.

WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ENGINEERING IDENTITY IN DEPARTMENTAL MAGAZINES

The literature on university marketing materials suggests that institutions of higher education often commodify diversity in order to encourage students from minoritized groups to submit applications to these schools. Drawing from this literature, this study utilized one electrical and computer engineering department's alumni magazine over 16 years to analyze the implicit and explicit ways an ideal engineer is depicted. Drawing on previously published work on engineering identity development and critical race theory, this study utilized critical discourse analysis to uncover how nearly 20 years of departmental publications privilege certain key players in the department (i.e., faculty and successful alumni) over others (i.e., undergraduates, women students, and students of color) and portray students from minoritized backgrounds in problematic ways that may undermine efforts to broaden participation.

Exploring How Socioeconomic Status and the S-STEM Scholarship Influence Engineering Identity Development for Community College Students

ABSTRACT Developing an engineering identity is crucial for students pursuing an engineering degree. Community college students may experience greater difficulty building and maintaining engineering identities than their peers at 4-year universities. The purpose of the present study is to examine how socioeconomic status (SES) and the S-STEM scholarship, a program funded by the National Science Foundation, influence engineering identity development for community college students. Eight engineering students from a community college in the Midwest were interviewed. The data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach. Analyses revealed three key findings: (1) regardless of SES status, the S-STEM scholarship allowed students to focus on developing and maintaining an engineering identity, (2) financial security and engineering identity development share a meaningful relationship for low-income and first-generation students, and (3) the community college experience for engineering students may be marked by transfer identity complications and disruptions in engineering identity.

Investigating engineering identity development and stability amongst first-year engineering students: a person-centred approach

ABSTRACT Engineering identity is a rapidly evolving construct within engineering, primarily due to its link to engineering persistence. Yet, most engineering identity research has been qualitative in nature or has described individuals within the analytical technique as coming from a single population. This study is the first to allow for the detection of different meaningful groups of engineering students demonstrating similarity on the construct using the new technique of Random Intercept Latent Transition Analysis. Through this study we identified three stable classes of engineering identity amongst first-year undergraduate students. Women demonstrated a greater likelihood of advancing to higher engineering identity classes over time than men. Unfortunately, the influence of COVID-19 yielded negative engineering identity developmental patterns for some students. Lastly, descriptive analyses of students’ first-year engineering identity class assignments in relation to their selection/non-selection of engineering majors revealed Calculus-readiness upon college entrance might be an important component in these relationships.

Children's engineering identities‐in‐practice: An exploration of child–adult interactions in an out‐of‐school context

AbstractBackgroundResearch points to family talk and interactions involving STEM concepts as one of the most influential informal learning experiences that shape an individual's STEM identity development and encourage their pursuit of a STEM career. However, a recent literature review uncovers limited research regarding the development of engineering identity in young children.PurposeThe purpose of this study was to add to this scant literature by exploring how children position themselves as engineers and how children are positioned as engineers through interactions with parents and other adults within a program focused on family engagement within an engineering design process.MethodsThis study includes two parent–child dyads. We collected and analyzed approximately 19.5 h of video data of the two child–parent dyads interacting with one another throughout an engineering design process as part of an out‐of‐school program.ResultsResults highlight three ways in which the two children enacted various engineering identities through their positioning, negotiation, and acceptance and/or rejection of positionalities as they engaged in an engineering design process with a parent. These identity enactments included (a) possessing knowledge and authority to make decisions regarding the development of their self‐identified engineering problem and prototype; (b) questioning and challenging adult ideas, solutions, and construction of prototypes; and (c) documenting and communicating their thinking regarding the engineering design through sketches and notes.ConclusionsThe significance of this study lies in its potential to change the landscape of those who pursue an engineering career and to contribute to the limited research and ongoing conversations about how to foster environments that support families in creative and collaborative learning specific to the engineering discipline.

Exploring Students’ Perception of the Influence of PBL Elements on the Development of Engineering Identity

<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Contribution:</i> This article illustrates a theoretical model and an analytical tool for understanding the influence of diverse elements of the project-based learning (PBL) environment on engineering identity development in students. Supportive elements in three dimensions that contribute to students’ identities as future engineers are identified to inspire the improvement of future PBL design. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Background:</i> Prior research has investigated the components and impact factors of engineering identity, emphasizing the importance of understanding engineering identity development in diverse learning contexts. While a wide range of educational activities has been regarded as contextual factors that influence students’ feelings about becoming engineers, it is still unclear what learning elements from the PBL context could contribute to engineering identity development in students, and limited analytical tools are developed from and tested in the PBL environment. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Research Question:</i> What elements of the PBL environment contribute to engineering identity development in students from the students’ perspectives? <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Methodology:</i> Considering the dimensions of internal motivation (IM), competence beliefs (CBs), and external support (ES), a survey was designed based on prior qualitative studies and conducted at a leading Danish university. The survey’s content validity, construct validity, and reliability were tested using expert review, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and Cronbach’s alpha. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Findings:</i> Supportive PBL elements for engineering identity development in students were reported in the dimensions of IM, CBs, and ES. Among the three dimensions, IM was identified as the most important for allowing students to develop the feeling that they would become engineers in the future. Comparisons between genders, educational levels, and academic subjects verified the different impacts of the three dimensions on engineering identity development.

Exploring senior engineering students’ engineering identity: the impact of practice-oriented learning experiences

BackgroundEngineering identity reflects students' acceptance and recognition of engineering, which has a great influence on their willingness to enter and stay in the engineering field. Existing studies have shown that curricular and co-curricular practice-oriented experiences may be helpful for developing students’ engineering identity. However, the actual impact of various practice-oriented learning experiences remained to be further examined. This quantitative study aims to explore the impact of three types of practice-oriented learning experiences (capstone experiences, technological innovation and entrepreneurship competitions, and engineering-related internships) in the development of engineering talents' engineering identity. A theoretical framework of engineering identity, which consists of three dimensions, that is, Interest, Performance/Competence and Recognition, was adopted to guide the research.ResultsThrough responses from 160 senior engineering students at a leading research intensive Chinese university, the study explored the relationships between engagement in practice-oriented learning experiences and engineering identity. Senior capstone design was found to be associated positively with students' development of engineering identity and recognition by others. Participating in two or more technological innovation and entrepreneurship competitions associated positively with students' development of engineering identity, performance/competence and recognition. Meanwhile, internships did not show any statistically significant effect on engineering identity. Moreover, by analyzing the potential mediating effect, we found that recognition played a complete intermediary role between senior capstone design and engineering identity. In addition, recognition and performance/competence mediated the relationship between twice or more technological innovation and entrepreneurship competitions and engineering identity.ConclusionsThese findings add to our current understanding about the role of different practice-oriented learning activities on students’ development of engineering identity. These findings point to the importance of learning activities, including technological innovation and entrepreneurship competitions and senior capstone design, on the development of engineering identity. Moreover, the results highlighted the important role of students’ engagement in multiple authentic engineering projects throughout the curriculum and their gaining recognitions through these project experiences. Based on these findings, practical suggestions are proposed to help nurture students’ engineering identity. In addition, future qualitative investigations about the underlying mechanisms are recommended to facilitate the understanding of students’ development of engineering identity.

“I Found My Home There”: Women’s Engineering Identity in STEM Student Organizations

Motivated by ongoing gender disparities in engineering, the authors qualitatively examine how collegiate STEM student organizations serve as affirming spaces for women’s engineering identity development, countering their exclusionary classroom environments. Drawing from interviews and written data with 24 undergraduate women, findings demonstrate how student organizations promote engineering identity through women recognizing themselves as engineers, viewing peers as possibility models, and being recognized by others as engineers. We conclude with practical implications for fostering inclusive engineering environments.

The Impact of Girl Scout Engineering Experiences on the Identity Development of Middle Schoolers

Despite years of recruitment efforts, women remain significantly underrepresented throughout engineering. While research into precollege engineering education has expanded, it has primarily focused on formal learning settings, even though students spend significantly more time outside of the classroom. The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything, including the time spent outside of the classroom in informal environments. Specifically, programs had to evolve to provide online content and at-home activities. Some programs even shut down completely. Within this context, our study sought to understand the impact of one informal engineering learning experience, a Girl Scout engineering badge, which also shifted online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we examined the impact on middle school girls’ engineering identity development to understand how these experiences supported the development of an engineering identity. Before and after a Girl Scout engineering badge experience, 15 girls (grades 4–7) were interviewed about their knowledge and perception of engineering. The Draw-an-Engineer Test was used as a focal artifact, and we studied the girls’ engineering identity through the lens of Possible Selves Theory. The engineering badge activities were facilitated online. Completely virtual and hybrid meetings were employed allowing additional insight into how outcomes differ with delivery method. Most participants showed an increase in their understanding of engineering and some developed engineering possible selves. Through our work, we noted that informal engineering experiences can improve pre-college students’ understanding and perception of engineering; however, differences in program delivery, such as those caused by the pandemic, can have an impact. Therefore, significant additional research is needed to better understand the scope of the impact of informal programs particularly regarding how impacts differ across delivery modes and contexts. These discoveries can be used to shape evidence-based recommendations for impactful informal experiences.

Children’s Engineering Identity Development Within an At-Home Engineering Program During COVID-19

The culture of engineering and the culture of formal learning environments often make it difficult for individuals to develop an engineering identity. Conversely, recent research points to the home environment as an alternative setting to support disciplinespecific identity development of children, while less is known regarding the identity development of children as engineers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the development of children’s engineering identity through the co-creation of engineering concepts and engagement with engineering design thinking and processes with family members in home environments during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted interviews with nine families—nine parents and 13 children in Grades 3–6. Analysis of the interviews highlighted how situational interest, recognition, self-efficacy, and doing engineering shaped and informed children’s developing identity. For example, child participants expressed heightened situational interest in the engineering design process and various genres of engineering, with some self-identifying as a particular type of engineer based on their interests. Some expressed greater interest in utilizing engineering practices and processes in the future, either as a career or as a hobby. As another finding, child participants discursively enacted and behaved as engineers through their experiences with collaboration, failure, and perseverance. Concurrently, parent participants articulated their child(ren)’s developing engineering identity, particularly in how their children conducted new processes and modeled the thinking and perseverance of engineers. Parents also noted the development of an inquisitive mindset regarding materials and objects in their home and community environments. We argue that the significance of this study lies in the potential to develop children’s engineering identity in home environments beyond the pandemic, as well as inform children’s identity trajectory as engineers as they continue to accumulate traces of an engineering identity over time and space.

Developing Engineering Identity in an Introductory Engineering Course: A Multi-Case Analysis

Research in engineering education has identified several factors relevant to the development of students’ identity as engineers. Here we examine the engineering identity of undergraduate engineering students after an introductory engineering course. The specific research question explored here is: "How do engineering students in an introductory engineering course interpret competence, performance, and recognition in relation to their identities as engineers?” We used a modified engineering identity framework to explore the development of engineering identity within the undergraduate engineering context through a multiple case study approach. Six students majoring in engineering participated in the study. The students had divergent perspectives on what it meant to be competent as an engineer. In all cases, students connected both competence and performance as an engineer with persistence. At this introductory stage, self-recognition as an engineering person took center stage for each student. All were able to identify themselves strongly as an engineering person. The findings add to the current understandings about the development of engineering identity, and suggest that engineering identity may be critically important in conversations about the steps faculty may take in working with students to promote increased retention of undergraduate students in engineering.

Entering the community of practice: changes in engineering students’ engineering identities and perceptions of the field

ABSTRACT Policymakers and industry representatives have called for an increase in the number of engineering graduates, but many students, even in their final year of their programs, remain unsure of their plans to enter engineering as a career. The research question guiding this study is: how do changes in students’ perceptions of the field of engineering relate to how they describe their development of engineering identity? To address this question, focus group interviews were conducted with 62 students across 15 engineering majors and three universities in the United States. Results indicate that students find engineering to be broader than anticipated, which implicates how they imagine they might contribute to the field. Students perceive that perseverance, collaboration, and opportunities for authentic engagement with practice lead to academic success and better employment outcomes, and they recognise lifelong learning will help them continually adapt to the dynamic and complex nature of the engineering field.

The influence of policy implementation in the Midwest: How an SSTEM program broadens participation and enhances engineering identity for community college students

This qualitative research study describes how a Midwest community college’s implementation of an Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (SSTEM) program influences engineering identity development for its students with financial need. Using a phenomenological approach, the study finds that the program enables community college students to have greater financial freedom and an ability to focus on engineering identity. In addition, the SSTEM program enhances student connections with STEM faculty, program staff, and peers. The study highlights the need for creating spaces for engineering identity development, developing connections between faculty, staff, and students, and enhancing transfer connections through different experiences. Future research might look to longitudinal designs and investigate additional contexts, engineering disciplines, gender differences, and programmatic structures to add nuance to these findings. The study suggests that practitioners might frame SSTEM and engineering experiences as opportunities for financial freedom and identity development and make further enhancements to transfer connections to four-year institutional partners. In terms of policy, the study suggests that policymakers consider identity development experiences an important aspect of funding SSTEM programs while enhancing programmatic support services available to students and placing greater emphasis on the collaborative actions, planned activities, and power dynamics between two- and four-year institutions funded by the SSTEM program.

Resilient engineering identity development critical to prolonged engagement of Black women in engineering

AbstractBackgroundSocial identity theory has been used to understand student and professional engagement in engineering. Engineering identity development, however, can be disrupted by the barriers and challenges associated with the racialized and gendered perceptions of engineering.Purpose/HypothesisThis study examined the engineering identity development and resilience of Black women engineers in industry through the exploration of their experiences in the engineering workplace. Many studies document challenges that underrepresented groups face in engineering. This work, instead, focuses on particular supports and empowerment that enabled continued participation in the engineering workforce over time.Design/MethodThis interpretative phenomenological analysis consisted of nine self‐identified Black women engineers currently employed in engineering industry with at least 10 years of work experience and explored the background, pathway into and through engineering, and what it means to be an engineer through 90‐min interviews with each participant.ResultsThe results of this study suggest that engineering identity development alone does not contribute to the retention of Black women in the engineering workplace but instead the confluence of race, gender, and role identity that aids in developing a resilient engineering identity.ConclusionsThe formal, informal, and structural educational experiences of Black women engineers are critical to the development of a resilient engineering identity. This identity is dependent on the complexities associated with being Black, a woman, and an engineer.

The Importance of Collaborative Design for Narrowing the Gender Gap in Engineering: An Analysis of Engineering Identity Development in Elementary Students

Research suggests that, to narrow the gender gap in engineering, we should focus on helping young girls identify with engineering both because gendered attitudes emerge around kindergarten and because identity is more predictive than performance on persistence in the field. This qualitative study sought to understand the impact of collaborative engineering design on the development of engineering identities in elementary-school students and compared the findings across gender. We focused on three tiers of collaboration embedded into the engineering design process: peer groups, role models, and shared goals. More specifically, the elementary students worked in small teams and partnered with undergraduate engineers to help design and build dancing robots that come together for a coordinated dance performance. We used ethnographic methods, including pre- and post-program student interviews, video-recorded program sessions, and documentation of student work, to investigate elementary students’ engineering identities. Three themes emerged from our analysis. First, working with peers encouraged students who were initially uninterested in engineering, the majority of whom were girls, to join the program and helped them to engage in the activities. Second, partnering with engineer role models contributed to the elementary students’ developing identities as engineers: The girls were most influenced by the personal bonds they formed, while the boys were most influenced by the technical skills they learned. Third, all girls and most boys preferred the idea of working toward a shared goal over competitive projects that, as described by the students, can cause bad feelings and hurt friendships. Our work supports and extends elementary engineering literature by considering the role of multiple tiers of collaboration in identity development in girls and boys. Our results suggest that engineering design programs that foster collaboration can help more students, especially more girls, engage in and identify with engineering, thereby contributing to the narrowing of the gender gap.

The Making of ‘Ideal’ Electrical and Computer Engineers: A Departmental Document Analysis

This article uses document analysis to explore departmental messaging about electrical and computer engineering identity development for undergraduate students at an American research university in the Midwest. We found that these texts collectively produce an image of the ‘ideal’ electrical and computer engineer. This image depicts ‘ideal’ electrical and computer engineers as performing technical competence, being recognized for high-quality performance, and being well-rounded as well as an effective member/leader of diverse teams. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Becoming La Ingeniera: Examining the Engineering Identity Development of Undergraduate Latina Students

ABSTRACT Latina students are enrolling in postsecondary education in high numbers, yet their enrollment in engineering fields remains low. Part of the challenge Latina students face is a struggle to develop a strong professional identity as an engineer. Using a phenomenological approach, this study examined the experiences of undergraduate Latina engineering students. Researchers used a four-step process to understand the meaning-making process of identity formation. Latina engineering students developed professional identities through interactions with family members, engagement with identity-based organizations, and in relation to their other identities. Implications include the need to enhance family involvement, provide organizational support, and consider intersecting identities.