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There is a growing recognition of the impact of messaging on attracting and retaining a diverse student body in engineering. Drawing on the notion of autopoiesis from systems theory, this exploratory study examines a non-traditional, freshman college student's experiences of how messaging or, stories 'told' about engineering, function to privilege and perpetuate certain understandings of the field. Autoethnographic techniques are used to construct three accounts of the student's encounters with an upper level administrator, various members of faculty, and an academic advisor. Critical analysis of these experiences using a prior evidence-based model of stories 'told' about engineering in the public discourse reveals tensions between the freshman student's values and career interests and the emergent, dominant discourse he observed in his undergraduate program. These tensions are described in terms of: i) The prioritization of national economic recovery and growth over the life and career goals of individuals; ii) A predominant focus on the quantitative and technical aspects of engineering practice over qualitative and social aspects; and iii) A 'production mindset' that gives precedence to quickly generating a large number of engineering professionals to inject into the workforce over recognizing the broader educational aspirations of students. We argue that the definitions of engineering that emerge across these conversations do not do justice to the diversity of student experiences of becoming, and wanting to become, an engineer. Based on these findings, we invite university administration, faculty, and staff to critically explore implicit messages that are communicated to students in order to be able to better respond to the diverse priorities and values students bring to their education and carry throughout their professional development.

Shari E. Miller is an Associate Professor and the Associate Dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Georgia. Her research focuses broadly on social work education and the social work profession with specific areas ranging from educational innovation, thinking in and for social work, development of theory, inter-and trans-disciplinary and inter-professional education and practice, and professional socialization. She has experience teaching across the social work education continuum, with an emphasis on theory, practice, and the relationship between theory, research, and practice. She is engaged in an ongoing collaborative research program with colleagues from engineering to develop inter-disciplinary approaches to education for reflective inter-professional practice in a global society. She also collaborates with colleagues from multiple disciplines on community engaged projects focused on sustainability.Dr. Nicola W. Sochacka, University of Georgia Dr. Nicola W. Sochacka received her doctorate in Engineering Epistemologies from the University of Queensland, Australia, in 2011. She is currently a member of the CLUSTER research group at the University of Georgia where she holds a research and teaching position. Nicola's areas of research interest include: STEAM (STEM + Art) education, diversity, interpretive research quality, the role of empathy in engineering education and practice, and student reflection. Mr. Michael Alvin Brewer jr., University of Georgia University of Georgia c American Society for Engineering Education, 2016Fostering empathy in an undergraduate mechanical engineering course AbstractEngineers are increasingly being called upon to infuse a deeply considered, empathic regard for a broad range of stakeholders into their work. This development can be attributed to a growing recognition of the socially-situated nature of engineering practice and the shared and interdisciplinary nature of today's grand challenges. In order to prepare engineers to more effectively address these challenges, we contend that empathic ways of interacting with others need to be explicitly fostered in undergraduate engineering programs. Pedagogical approaches to teach empathy to engineering students, however, are limited. In this paper, we describe the development and pilot implementation of a set of four empathy modules that we integrated into a sophomore mechanical engineering course (n=110) at a large state university. We used a theoretically-grounded, context-specific model for empathy in engineering, which conceptualizes empathy as a teachable and learnable skill, a critically reflected-upon practice orientation, and a professional way of being, as the basis for developing the modules. Drawing on detailed observation notes and critical reflections, we provide an account of how the modules were received by the students and the lessons we learned with the view to further refining the modules for future iterations. In parallel, we discuss early insights concerning the potential impact of integrating explic...

Background: Stories are a natural and powerful way for humans to make sense of complex situations. Prior research suggests that when people are faced with complex problems, like underrepresentation in engineering, they construct and defer to stories, sometimes even in the face of contradicting evidence, as a basis for decision making and action. Purpose/Hypothesis: We examined the public discourse to identify stories about underrepresentation in engineering, and about engineering more broadly, that inform and underwrite efforts to address the dual problem of a general lack of interest in engineering careers and a lack of diversity in engineering graduates and professionals. Design/Method: Drawing on the theory of framing and concepts from narrative policy analysis (NPA), we qualitatively analyzed one year of online news articles (from August 2011 to August 2012) sourced from a news briefing service for engineering educators. Results: We describe five dominant stories about engineering that define the field in terms of math and science, building things, the need for societal appreciation, diversity-driven innovation, and hardearned career rewards, respectively. These stories share a common premise-that a chronic shortage of engineers threatens the economic growth and international competitiveness of the United States. Each story includes explanations for perceived low levels of interest in the field and recommendations to address this problem. We note that increasing the participation of groups from diverse ethnic backgrounds was not a prominent theme in the discourse we analyzed compared to, for example, attracting more women or increasing the overall number of young people who are interested in engineering careers. Consistent with NPA, we also describe a nonstory that critiques the premise of the dominant stories. Conclusions: We discuss how the dominant stories reflect a particular set of values and practices, centered on competition, economic gain, and the design of technological artifacts that, in turn, shape efforts to attract, educate, and retain students. We further discuss how alternative narratives may open up new opportunities for systemic, cultural change in engineering education with important implications for diversifying the field.

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