Conference Session

Engineering Cultures and Identity

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Allison Godwin, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Topics

ASEE Diversity Committee

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

engineeringpersistence49,50. Performance/competence beliefs are broader than self-efficacy, which has beentraditionally measured as task-specific attainment51. Students’ beliefs about their ability toperform the practices of their discipline and understand the content of their discipline – whetherscience, math, or engineering – has an impact on their ability to see themselves as the kind ofperson who can legitimately participate in these areas52.Figure 1. Framework for students’ identification with engineering adapted from Hazari et al.16These three factors (recognition, interest, and performance/competence) comprise the identitymeasures developed in this work and are consistent with prior literature from psychology,sociology, science education, and engineering

Conference Session

Engineering Cultures and Identity

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Anita Patrick, University of Texas, Austin; Maura Borrego, University of Texas, Austin

Tagged Topics

ASEE Diversity Committee, Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

isevident and supported by Table 2. Despite this lack of coherence, these studies have beenimportant first steps in exploring specific aspects of identity development in engineering. Closely related to identity but not explicitly stated, others have provided a review andanalysis of existing research on the measurement of the characteristics of engineering students inorder to illuminate factors that affect college enrollment and retention.12 The authors, Li,Swaminathan, and Tang, found that many researchers are specifically looking at the factors thathelp or hinder the matriculation of underrepresented groups into engineering. Marra, Rodgers,Shen, and Bogue conducted a multi-institution study on self-efficacy and women engineeringstudents.36

Conference Session

Engineering Cultures and Identity

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephen Secules, University of Maryland, College Park; Andrew Elby, University of Maryland, College Park; Ayush Gupta, University of Maryland, College Park

Tagged Topics

ASEE Diversity Committee, Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

(recently) sexual minorities within higher educationSTEM programs. Likewise retention research highlighting additional corroborating factors instudent struggles, such as self-efficacy and cognitive attributes4,5,6, has informed the efforts ofsome of these support programs in affective and academic dimensions. Qualitative researchstrands that look at identity and marginalization have documented struggles from the studentperspective, noting how aspects of self can contribute to or come into conflict with one’sprogress and prosperity within a STEM major7,8,9. This research often employs a metaphor of“cultural mismatch” or “identity mismatch” to help extend the empathy and perspective ofpractitioners and those involved in the day to day of STEM in

Conference Session

Engineering Cultures and Identity

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hank Boone, University of Nevada, Reno; Adam Kirn, University of Nevada, Reno

Tagged Topics

ASEE Diversity Committee, Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

dissociation from engineering but is more a measure of one’s “fit”14. FGS students may seetheir salient identity as separate from engineering, but they choose to associate (major in)engineering and thus take on engineering’s group affiliation. Social identity serves as theoverlying structure guiding our work. This theory serves to potentially bridge the gap betweenengineering identity and belongingness to engineering. Additionally, the role of social capitalfalls into this theory as it serves to moderate entrance into the engineering group and thedevelopment of feelings of belongingness in engineering. Identity, belongingness, and socialcapital will be used to measure the students’ engineering social identity for this study. Explicitframing of how we