Asee peer logo

Work-In-Progress: Intersectionality, (Re)Defined: A Scoping Review of Intersectionality in the Journal of Engineering Education

Download Paper |

Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Equity, Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY) Technical Session 11

Tagged Divisions

Equity and Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44423

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44423

Download Count

189

Paper Authors

biography

Jerry Austin Yang Stanford University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-5521-8523

visit author page

Jerry A. Yang is a doctoral student and graduate research assistant at Stanford University pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering and a MA in Education. He received a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin with a certificate

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

The experiences of engineering students with multiply marginalized identities have gained increasing attention from engineering education researchers and practitioners, as they face unique oppressions due to their interlocking identities. In exploring these experiences, researchers and practitioners have often marshalled the theoretical construct of intersectionality to explain multiply marginalized students’ experiences. Intersectionality, first coined by Black feminist scholar Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989, generally refers to conceptualizing the experiences of multiply marginalized people not as a sum of marginalization brought upon by each identity, but as a unique product of all the interlocking oppressions they face as multiply marginalized people [1]. However, as the term has become more popularized and mainstream, definitions of intersectionality – and what it means to do (or not do) “intersectional” research – have shifted over time [2]. Since its first use in engineering education literature in 2009 [3], intersectionality has gained steadily increasing prevalence in engineering education research, highlighting the need to unpack its definitions, meanings, operationalization, and utilization within the context of engineering education.

In this paper, I introduce a brief history of intersectionality’s radical roots and evolving definitions in queer Black feminist activism, identity politics, and social justice efforts. Then, I showcase a subset of a broader, on-going mixed-methods scoping review on intersectionality’s definitions and usage in the engineering education research literature over time. Drawing from a dataset of 25 journal articles published in the Journal of Engineering Education between 2011 and 2022, I analyze word frequencies, types of studies, and contexts in which intersectionality is summoned using descriptive statistics and qualitative coding. These results suggest the need for two key considerations in future engineering education research engaging in intersectionality: first, a reframing of intersectionality as a theory about structural systems of power, privilege, and oppression rather than individuals with multiply marginalized identities, and second, a call for researchers to intentionally situate intersectionality within systemic oppression, social justice, liberation, and solidarity/coalition-building frameworks. [1] K. Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” University of Chicago Legal Forum, vol. 1989, no. 1, pp. 139–167, 1989. [2] J. C. Harris and L. D. Patton, “Un/Doing Intersectionality through Higher Education Research,” The Journal of Higher Education, vol. 90, no. 3, pp. 347–372, May 2019, doi: 10.1080/00221546.2018.1536936. [3] D. M. Riley, A. L. Pawley, J. Tucker, and G. D. Catalano, “Feminisms in Engineering Education: Transformative Possibilities,” NWSA Journal, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 21–40, 2009.

Yang, J. A. (2023, June), Work-In-Progress: Intersectionality, (Re)Defined: A Scoping Review of Intersectionality in the Journal of Engineering Education Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44423

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: © 2023 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