Evolving Identities:  Undergraduate Women Pursuing the Engineering Professoriate

Sarah Hug; Susan Jurow; Wendy C. Chi

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Conference: 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Vancouver, BC
Publication Date: June 26, 2011
Start Date: June 26, 2011
End Date: June 29, 2011
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: WIED Olio
Tagged Division: Women in Engineering
Page Count: 16
Page Numbers: 22.659.1 - 22.659.16
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--17940
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/17940
Download Count: 444

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Paper Authors

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Sarah Hug University of Colorado, Boulder

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Dr. Sarah Hug is Research Associate at the Alliance for Technology, Learning, and Society (ATLAS) Institute, University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Hug earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research and evaluation efforts focus on learning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, with a special interest in communities of practice, creativity, and experiences of underrepresented groups in these fields across multiple contexts.

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Susan Jurow University of Colorado at Boulder

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A. Susan Jurow is an Assistant Professor and Co-Chair of the Educational Psychological Studies Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She studies the interrelations between identity, interaction, and culture in and across learning environments. Her research has been published in journals including the Journal of the Learning Sciences, Mind, Culture, and Activity, and the Journal of Teacher Education.

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Wendy C. Chi University of Colorado, Boulder

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Wendy Chi is a doctoral student of the Educational Foundations, Policy and Practice program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her research interests include educational policy and law, with a focus on school choice and segregation. She also assists in research on broadening participation in computing.

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Abstract

A socio-cultural perspective on supporting critical female advocates for equity in engineering learning communitiesEngineering in United States contexts has historically been the domain of Caucasian/whitemales. Programmatic efforts address the disparity in engineering by forming inclusive learningcommunities that support gender and racial diversity. FemProf is a comprehensive engineeringeducation program that engages female undergraduates at two Hispanic-serving institutions inthe United States. Program activities include multisite research experiences, professionaldevelopment and community building. Workshops address cultural, gender and workplacebiases the women may find in the engineering professions, as well as training regarding graduateschool application, research presentation and publication. FemProf „s explicit focus is preparingundergraduate women for success in graduate school and for future participation in theprofessoriate.In this paper, we use a socio-cultural perspective to examine how FemProf attempts to developundergraduate Hispanic women‟s academic skills and facilitate their entrance into theprofessoriate. Because learning from this social-constructivist view involves transformations inknowledge and identity, concentrating data collection and analysis on the learning community‟spractices and the individual participants simultaneously provided a fuller understanding oflearning mechanisms as they developed in context.Over the course of the three-year program, the authors utilized the following qualitative andquantitative educational research methods: surveys for female students engaged in FemProf,semi structured interviews with program directors, female students enrolled in the program andresearch mentors, document analysis, and participant observation. A grounded, thematicapproach to qualitative data analysis uncovered three themes evident in the process of Fem Profundergraduate participant learning: “program support for professoriate trajectories”, “participantidentification with engineering pathways” and a third theme not anticipated: “participantsadvocate for gender equity in engineering”. Based on our qualitative analysis, we argue FemProfsupports inclusion of women into the engineering community, and makes explicit the pathway tothe professoriate. In doing so, the program supports women‟s critique of their own academiccommunities. By attending to social, academic, and technical needs of women in computing,FemProf creates contexts for learning how to become an engineering professor. We detailimplications for engineering academic departments as well as for similar supplementaleducational programs.

Citation
Format

Hug, S., & Jurow, S., & Chi, W. C. (2011, June), Evolving Identities: Undergraduate Women Pursuing the Engineering Professoriate Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--17940

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -     A socio-cultural perspective on supporting critical female advocates for                      equity in engineering learning communitiesEngineering in United States contexts has historically been the domain of Caucasian/whitemales. Programmatic efforts address the disparity in engineering by forming inclusive learningcommunities that support gender and racial diversity. FemProf is a comprehensive engineeringeducation program that engages female undergraduates at two Hispanic-serving institutions inthe United States. Program activities include multisite research experiences, professionaldevelopment and community building. Workshops address cultural, gender and workplacebiases the women may find in the engineering professions, as well as training regarding graduateschool application, research presentation and publication. FemProf „s explicit focus is preparingundergraduate women for success in graduate school and for future participation in theprofessoriate.In this paper, we use a socio-cultural perspective to examine how FemProf attempts to developundergraduate Hispanic women‟s academic skills and facilitate their entrance into theprofessoriate. Because learning from this social-constructivist view involves transformations inknowledge and identity, concentrating data collection and analysis on the learning community‟spractices and the individual participants simultaneously provided a fuller understanding oflearning mechanisms as they developed in context.Over the course of the three-year program, the authors utilized the following qualitative andquantitative educational research methods: surveys for female students engaged in FemProf,semi structured interviews with program directors, female students enrolled in the program andresearch mentors, document analysis, and participant observation. A grounded, thematicapproach to qualitative data analysis uncovered three themes evident in the process of Fem Profundergraduate participant learning: “program support for professoriate trajectories”, “participantidentification with engineering pathways” and a third theme not anticipated: “participantsadvocate for gender equity in engineering”. Based on our qualitative analysis, we argue FemProfsupports inclusion of women into the engineering community, and makes explicit the pathway tothe professoriate. In doing so, the program supports women‟s critique of their own academiccommunities. By attending to social, academic, and technical needs of women in computing,FemProf creates contexts for learning how to become an engineering professor. We detailimplications for engineering academic departments as well as for similar supplementaleducational programs.
AU  - Sarah Hug
AU  - Susan Jurow
AU  - Wendy C. Chi
CY  - Vancouver, BC
DA  - 2011/06/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Evolving Identities:  Undergraduate Women Pursuing the Engineering Professoriate 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/17940
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--17940
ER  -