Asee peer logo

Developing Engineers’ Critical Consciousness through Gender and Ethnic Studies: Reframing STEM Identity

Download Paper |

Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

July 12, 2024

Conference Session

Identity Formation and Engineering Cultures

Tagged Division

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/47166

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Jenn Stroud Rossmann Lafayette College

visit author page

Jenn Stroud Rossmann is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Lafayette College. She earned her BS in mechanical engineering and the PhD in applied physics from the University of California, Berkeley.

visit author page

biography

Mary A. Armstrong Lafayette College

visit author page

Mary A. Armstrong is Charles A. Dana Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and English at Lafayette College, where she also chairs the Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program. She earned her PhD in English and her Graduate Certification in Women's Studies from Duke University. She is co-author, with Susan Averett, of "Disparate Measures: The Intersectional Economics of STEM Work" (MIT Press 2024).

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Brazilian educator Paolo Friere’s influential notion of “critical consciousness” [1] requires that subjects become aware of the complex systems of power and oppression in which they are enmeshed and develop a sense of social justice that leads them to take liberatory action. We investigate the question of whether coursework in women’s, gender and sexuality studies (WGSS) or ethnic studies empowers minoritized engineering students to develop critical consciousness relative to the culture of engineering. Our work investigates the influence of two such courses on student attitudes and motivation by gathering both qualitative and quantitative data from students in two STEM-themed courses in WGSS and ethnic studies, “Gender and STEM” and “Race and Technology.” We argue that in these courses students acquire skills that enable them to critically reflect on both the socially constructed nature of STEM and on the historical patterns within engineering culture that exacerbate existing inequities and injustice despite claims of “neutral” objectivity. In preliminary data, students report that these critical lenses on engineering are vision-clarifying and -broadening (reflecting the core concept of “meta-cognition” that underpins critical consciousness), and also motivate them to persist in and transform the culture of engineering (reflecting critical consciousness’ core value of movement toward justice-oriented action). As students develop a critical consciousness relative to engineering culture through their engagement with this coursework, their responses to instruments measuring “engineering identity” highlight and reveal the more specific ways in which this consciousness has developed. Our findings highlight the tremendous curricular power of interdisciplinary coursework and learning experiences that help engineering students develop critical consciousness within and about the culture of engineering.

Rossmann, J. S., & Armstrong, M. A. (2024, June), Developing Engineers’ Critical Consciousness through Gender and Ethnic Studies: Reframing STEM Identity Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47166

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: © 2024 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