Asee peer logo

A Tale of Two Universities: An Intersectional Approach to Examining Microaggressions among Undergraduate Engineering Students at an HBCU and a PWI

Download Paper |

Conference

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual On line

Publication Date

June 22, 2020

Start Date

June 22, 2020

End Date

June 26, 2021

Conference Session

NSF Grantees: Diversity 2

Tagged Topics

Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--34072

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/34072

Download Count

702

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Meghan Berger North Carolina A&T State University

visit author page

Meghan is a PhD student in the Rehabilitation Counseling and Rehabilitation Counselor Education program at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Her broad research interests include exploring the experiences of marginalized groups and multicultural competency in counseling. In the clinical setting, she focuses on culturally relevant therapeutic interventions with African-American and LatinX client populations.

visit author page

biography

Stephanie Luster-Teasley North Carolina A&T State University

visit author page

Dr. Stephanie Luster-Teasley is Professor and Chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University. Over the last fifteen years, Dr. Luster-Teasley has demonstrated excellence in teaching by using a variety of research-based, student-centered, pedagogical methods to increase diversity in STEM. Her teaching and engineering education work has resulted in her receiving the 2013 UNC Board of Governors Teaching Excellence Award, which is the highest teaching award conferred by the UNC system for faculty.

visit author page

biography

Cristina Poleacovschi Iowa State University

visit author page

Dr. Poleacovschi is an Assistant Professor at Iowa State University. She researches issues of diversity and focuses on intersectional aspects of microaggressions.

visit author page

biography

Kalynda Chivon Smith North Carolina A&T State University

visit author page

Dr. Smith received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and her B.A. in Psychology and English from Truman State University in Kirksville, MO. Dr. Smith is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

visit author page

biography

Scott Grant Feinstein

visit author page

Dr. Scott Feinstein is an expert in research design and comparative and identity politics.

visit author page

biography

Gloria Jones-Johnson Iowa State University

visit author page

University Professor of Sociology

visit author page

author page

Luis Gonzalez-Diaz

Download Paper |

Abstract

The current study utilized the intersectionality theory to analyze microaggressions towards engineering undergraduate underrepresented gender and racial minority students. In this study, participants were sampled from intersecting identity groups (Asian female, Asian male, Black female, Black male, Hispanic female, Hispanic male, White female) at two institutional settings: 1)a Historically Black College/ University (HBCU) and 2) a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). The study’s analysis examined microaggressions in the context of undergraduate engineering programs at both sites, an HBCU and a PWI. The results suggested that a higher frequency of microaggressions took place at the PWI than the HBCU. The most frequently identified microaggressions included disjointed race and gender dialogue, hidden language, projected stereotypes, an ascription of intelligence, silence, and marginalization. The paper aims to increase awareness of the prevalence and varying types of microaggressions experienced between the sites. These results may influence policies and educational practices to meet the needs of underrepresented minority students in engineering. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. (1828172 and 1828559). “Collaborative Research: An Intersectional Perspective to Studying Microaggressions in Engineering Programs”.

Berger, M., & Luster-Teasley, S., & Poleacovschi, C., & Smith, K. C., & Feinstein, S. G., & Jones-Johnson, G., & Gonzalez-Diaz, L. (2020, June), A Tale of Two Universities: An Intersectional Approach to Examining Microaggressions among Undergraduate Engineering Students at an HBCU and a PWI Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34072

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2020 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015