2022 CoNECD (Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity)
New Orleans, Louisiana
February 20, 2022
February 20, 2022
July 20, 2022
Diversity and CoNECD Paper Sessions
15
10.18260/1-2--39128
https://peer.asee.org/39128
583
Sharetta (she, her, hers) is a PhD candidate in the Learning Sciences program, which is housed in the College of Education, and serves as the Assistant Director of Recruitment and Inclusive Excellence in the College of Science at Clemson University. Her research interests focus on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in mathematics education.
Stephanie Ashley Damas is currently a graduate student at Clemson University studying to get her Ph.D. in Engineering and Science Education. Her area of interest is Diversity and Inclusion in Engineering. She holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Florida State University.
Matthew (he,him,his) is an Assistant Professor of Engineering and Science Education at Clemson University. His research interests center around issues of equity, access, and power structures occurring in undergraduate STEM programs with a focus on introductory mathematics courses.
Eliza is an Assistant Professor of Engineering and Science Education at Clemson University, with joint appointments to the School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences and to the Department of Education and Human Development. Her research centers issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM through the lens of identity development.
Writing a doctoral dissertation is a daunting task under the best of circumstances. Students must organize and synthesize their research and academic knowledge to make a compelling case for why their research matters and why their results are sound. In STEM education, a significant part of the dissertation is an extensive literature review leading to a conceptual or theoretical framework that guides the research. Enculturation into doctoral work in education research typically includes learning to use academic language and to eschew personal anecdotes in favor of published research findings. Yet most education researchers ground their interests in problems they have observed or experienced. That is, our lived experiences drive our research interests. For those within the dominant culture, others have likely observed, studied, and published about the same problem and situating the lived experience within prior literature is relatively straightforward. For those outside the dominant culture, there may be few prior studies addressing the observed problem and those studies that are tangentially relevant may miss key constructs of interest. In this paper, we challenge the cultural norm of allowing prior literature as the only acceptable form of evidence when establishing the context and framework for a study. Moreover, we posit that disallowing lived experience as a valid form of evidence in contextualizing a study has the potential to do active harm to emerging scholars from marginalized groups. Since it is nonetheless important to make connections to existing literature and to become part of the scholarly conversation about STEM education research, we suggest ways to balance these forms of evidence.
Bufford, S. M., & Damas, S. A., & Voigt, M., & Gallagher, E. (2022, February), Lived Experiences and Literature Reviews: Leveraging Experiential Knowledge in STEM Education Doctoral Studies Paper presented at 2022 CoNECD (Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity) , New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/1-2--39128
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