Intersectional Engineers: Diversity of Gender and Race Microaggressions and Their Effects in Engineering Education

True‐Funk, Arie; Poleacovschi, Cristina; Jones-Johnson, Gloria; Feinstein, Scott; Smith, Kalynda Chivon; Luster‐Teasley, Stephanie

doi:10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000889

Cited by 29 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Prior research also shows that women, LGBTQA (Lesbian, Gay, Transsexual, Queer or Questioning, and Asexual), and Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, and People of Color college students experience more psychological challenges than white cisgender heterosexual men [22]- [26]. Given that the culture of Engineering and STEM programs is known to be particularly unwelcoming for Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, women, and other marginalized populations, with a high prevalence of microaggressions, stereotype threats, and other stressors [45]- [47], it is worth exploring whether marginalized engineering students face additional mental health burdens compared to peers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental Health in Engineering Education: Identifying Population and Intersectional Variation

Danowitz

Beddoes

2022

IEEE Trans. Educ.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental Health in Engineering Education: Identifying Population and Intersectional Variation

Danowitz

Beddoes

2022

IEEE Trans. Educ.

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“…In 2018, ASEE ran the first Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference (CoNECD). In engineering education research, intersectional (Banda, 2020;Bruning et al, 2015;Kirn et al, 2016;Ong, Jaumot-Pascual, & Ko, 2020;Pawley, 2013;Ro & Loya, 2015;True-Funk et al, 2021) and critical theories of race and gender (Mejia, Revelo, Villanueva, & Mejia, 2018;Ong et al, 2020;Slaton, 2015) have emerged as widely accepted frameworks, as has the value of examining populations with "small n's" (Pawley, 2013;Slaton & Pawley, 2018). Dr. Lisa Benson, the current Editor in Chief at the Journal of Engineering Education, delivered a distinguished lecture at the ASEE 2020 annual conference focused explicitly on "aspects of our culture that generate disparities based on gender, sex, race, ethnicity, and other bases for marginalization" (Benson, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Narrative Analysis of Stories Told about Engineering in the Public Discourse: Implications for Equity and Inclusion in Engineering

Sochacka

Walther

Rich

et al. 2021

Studies in Engineering Education

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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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“…The cumulative result is that students subject to bias experience higher rates of academic failure (Farrell & Minerick, 2018 ). These negative experiences of underrepresented groups contribute to the persistent lack of diversity in engineering programs (True-Funk et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Developing Equitable Teamwork Skillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But there is growing recognition that unconscious bias affects interactions between people in teams and groups, which can have a negative impact on the emotional well-being of colleagues and fellow students (e.g., Swim et al, 2003) and on their learning (Aeby et al, 2019). In engineering education settings, this in turn contributes to the chilly climate which is an important factor in the under-representation of some genders, sexual orientations and ethnic groups in the engineering profession and in engineering education (Barnard et al, 2012;Lichtenstein et al, 2014;Meadows et al, 2015;True-Funk et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educating Engineering Students to Address Bias and Discrimination Within Their Project Teams

2023

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What training should engineering students receive to enable them to contribute to reducing bias, discrimination and the persistent lack of diversity in engineering? Collaboration is central to professional engineering work and, consequently, teamwork and group projects are increasingly present in engineering curricula. However, the influence of unconscious bias on interactions within teams can negatively affect women and underrepresented groups and is now recognised as an important engineering ethics issue. This paper describes a workshop designed to enable engineering students to work equitably in diverse teams. Key features of the workshop include (1) the emotionally safe, empowering and warm environment created, (2) the creation of opportunities for students to discuss and apply the issues raised to their own engineering projects, and (3) the opportunities to practice the use of both proactive and reactive strategies to address bias and discrimination in teams. The evaluation of the workshop suggests that engineering students regarded both onsite and online formats as providing useful skills that they intended to apply in practice. Follow-up evaluations suggest that the workshop leads to behavioural change, especially the use of proactive teamwork strategies intended to reduce the impact of unconscious bias.

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Intersectional Engineers: Diversity of Gender and Race Microaggressions and Their Effects in Engineering Education

Cited by 29 publications

References 51 publications

Mental Health in Engineering Education: Identifying Population and Intersectional Variation

Mental Health in Engineering Education: Identifying Population and Intersectional Variation

A Narrative Analysis of Stories Told about Engineering in the Public Discourse: Implications for Equity and Inclusion in Engineering

Educating Engineering Students to Address Bias and Discrimination Within Their Project Teams

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