Storytelling in Engineering as a Justice-centered Methodology

Robyn Mae Paul

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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: Reimagining Pathways: Nurturing Diversity and Identity in STEM Education
Tagged Divisions: Equity and Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/48001

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Paper Authors

biography

Robyn Mae Paul University of Calgary orcid.org/0000-0002-5619-5754

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Robyn Paul is a Assistant Professor in the Sustainable Systems Engineering program at the University of Calgary. Her work looks at using best practices from ecofeminism to deconstruct the dominant normative culture of engineering education.

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Abstract

I recently completed my PhD in Engineering, where my work brings light to the normative cultures of engineering education. By applying hierarchical dualisms (e.g. man-woman, mind-body, rational-emotional, culture-nature, technical-social, etc.), I aimed to increase the critical consciousness of the engineering education and support increasing awareness of these normative value systems.

Similar to many PhD students, I was struggling through the writing process. I itched to do something differently in how I presented my work. However, I realized that I was trying to fit my non-traditional work into the traditional box of engineering research. By trying to emphasize the rational, apolitical, and mechanistic elements of my research, I was being cut off from myself, my expression, and my way of being. Me and my research were deeply emotional, critical, and holistic, and by trying to follow the dominant norms of engineering in my writing, I was being separated from my own femininity and queerness, as well as that of my research.

Inspired by my queer identity and queer theorists, I began deconstructing boundaries and structures of writing that seemed natural and necessary. I recognize that through doing this I am “destabilizing the audience’s typical expectations with the specific purpose of subverting subject positions” (Kociatkiewicz and Kostera, 2023, p. 2). This may have made readers of my thesis feel uncomfortable as the knowledge structures they are used to seeing privileged are absent, and other knowledge structures are being given agency and prominence. Specifically, I chose to integrate storytelling through my PhD thesis.

Stories are used to make sense of the world, our experiences, our relations with these, and to plan for the future, which is why we “tell different stories at different times and for different reasons” (Woodiwiss, 2017, p. 17). They can be very personal, but also very political as they are constructed based on our experiences and context in the world. Stories allow us to deconstruct the dominant narratives and describe experiences and contexts that are usually not heard or understood. By telling a story through my thesis, I aim to emphasize that I am not more knowledgeable than others, but rather through stories I am sharing my relationships, dialogues, and connections, and how these came together to foster the final contributions of my work.

In this paper, I will outline how I applied the storytelling methodology in my thesis, some of the feedback and resistance I received along the way, and the ways in which this support my own learning. Through storytelling, I realized that the writing process was part of the research, it was forming my worldviews and shifting the purpose of my work. It is also not a individual process – through storytelling, I was able to break down boundaries and dominant narratives that allowed for me as the writer and others as the readers, to explore less structure, and more fluid and dynamic research aims.

Citation
Format

Paul, R. M. (2024, June), Storytelling in Engineering as a Justice-centered Methodology Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/48001

TY - CPAPER
AB - I recently completed my PhD in Engineering, where my work brings light to the normative cultures of engineering education. By applying hierarchical dualisms (e.g. man-woman, mind-body, rational-emotional, culture-nature, technical-social, etc.), I aimed to increase the critical consciousness of the engineering education and support increasing awareness of these normative value systems.

Similar to many PhD students, I was struggling through the writing process. I itched to do something differently in how I presented my work. However, I realized that I was trying to fit my non-traditional work into the traditional box of engineering research. By trying to emphasize the rational, apolitical, and mechanistic elements of my research, I was being cut off from myself, my expression, and my way of being. Me and my research were deeply emotional, critical, and holistic, and by trying to follow the dominant norms of engineering in my writing, I was being separated from my own femininity and queerness, as well as that of my research.

Inspired by my queer identity and queer theorists, I began deconstructing boundaries and structures of writing that seemed natural and necessary. I recognize that through doing this I am “destabilizing the audience’s typical expectations with the specific purpose of subverting subject positions” (Kociatkiewicz and Kostera, 2023, p. 2). This may have made readers of my thesis feel uncomfortable as the knowledge structures they are used to seeing privileged are absent, and other knowledge structures are being given agency and prominence. Specifically, I chose to integrate storytelling through my PhD thesis.

Stories are used to make sense of the world, our experiences, our relations with these, and to plan for the future, which is why we “tell different stories at different times and for different reasons” (Woodiwiss, 2017, p. 17). They can be very personal, but also very political as they are constructed based on our experiences and context in the world. Stories allow us to deconstruct the dominant narratives and describe experiences and contexts that are usually not heard or understood. By telling a story through my thesis, I aim to emphasize that I am not more knowledgeable than others, but rather through stories I am sharing my relationships, dialogues, and connections, and how these came together to foster the final contributions of my work.

In this paper, I will outline how I applied the storytelling methodology in my thesis, some of the feedback and resistance I received along the way, and the ways in which this support my own learning. Through storytelling, I realized that the writing process was part of the research, it was forming my worldviews and shifting the purpose of my work. It is also not a individual process – through storytelling, I was able to break down boundaries and dominant narratives that allowed for me as the writer and others as the readers, to explore less structure, and more fluid and dynamic research aims.
AU - Robyn Mae Paul
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Storytelling in Engineering as a Justice-centered Methodology
UR - https://peer.asee.org/48001
ER -