Learning as acquiring a discursive identity through participation in a community: improving student learning in engineering education

An Australian study of possible selves perceived by undergraduate engineering students

“…This study explored the presage thinking of undergraduate engineering students in relation to their future careers. In line with Biggs (1989) The study hoped to highlight strategies through which educators could encourage students' development of presage thinking in relation to their engineering futures, thereby informing the necessary development of their salient or discursive identities (Allie et al 2009). We involved students in a variety of activities in which they thought creatively about possible engineering roles and their future lives and careers.…”

Epistemic Practices of Engineering for Education

“…Studies of engineering practices make clear the importance of teamwork and communication, and the influence that communication has on the efficiency and quality of the teamwork (Brereton, Cannon, Mabogunje, & Liefer, ; Florman, ). The processes of effective engineering design require that the designer be able to think and communicate across a variety of semiotic media and to a variety of audiences (Allie et al., ). Dym, Agogino, Eris, Frey, and Leifer () noted that the languages of design include verbal or textual statements, graphical representation, shape grammars, features, mathematical or analytic models, and numbers (p. 108).…”

“…This identity is instilled in the community through the initiation of novices into the field. A number of studies of engineering education mention the importance of developing an identity as an engineer, and how this contributes to learning about the values of engineers, perseverance in the field, and learning to be a member of the community (Allie et al., ; Anderson et al., ).…”

Undergraduate STEM Instructors' Teacher Identities and Discourses on Student Gender Expression and Equity

“…In this study, we took a poststructualist, discursive, and dynamic approach to identity. This approach views identity not as a static, internal state; rather identities are dynamically constructed through linguistic practice and narratives circulating in public discourse in the multiple sociocultural contexts participants inhabit (Allie et al, ; Davies, ; Gee, ; Skerrett & Sevian, ). To paraphrase Gee (), this study specifically explored how STEM faculty use discourse to position themselves as “certain kinds” of teachers in relation to efforts for gender equity (p. 110).…”