Maps of meaning: journeys of first year engineering students

Narrative Inquiry in Engineering Education: A Systematic Literature Review

“…The restructuring of narrative data sources to follow a chronological pattern [52] Interpretive phenomenological analysis [64] 1 Examining a data source through the lens of the participant's psychological understanding of their experiences [43] Critical incident analysis [65] 2 Structuring narratives by focusing on major events told by the participants [40] Mindset theoretical analysis [66] 1 Analysis based on positive intentions of participants to develop a specific mindset [54] Constant comparative method [67] 1 Organization of data into categories that can be structured to form a theory [49] Categorical content analysis [68] 1 Breaking text into small units, or categories, of content without focusing on context [45] Qualitative case study [69] 1 Analysis of one specific topic based on individual systems and themes [55] Focus group analysis [70] 1 Coding individual points and group interactions resulting in the overarching themes of a [52] focus group transcription Seven of the analysis methods in Table 4 were used only by one study, indicating these methods' uniqueness to engineering education and/or narrative inquiry. Qaqish, Grant, & Bowles' [49] study used the constant comparative method to analyze narratives of black male engineering transfer students.…”

“…Kopparla et. al [52] decided to use the third person narrative construction method including direct quotes from the participants. Their narrative construction more easily allowed them to identify themes using Polkinghorne's [20] analysis of narratives.…”

“…These papers targeted one or more subsets of engineering students based on their experience, such as year in the curriculum [27], specific course [50], and/or students who have experienced a certain event or intervention [26,51]. Four studies explored students in their first and second years [14,27,[52][53], and two focused on students in their final year [17,54]. Minichiello & Hanks' [27] study concluded that their second year engineering student participants often point out their professional identities, indicating they are considering their future as professionals early in their curriculum.…”

“…Kopparla et. al [52] revealed through their analysis of first year students' narratives that by the end of their first year, some students are already excited to become engineers, while others are reconsidering their major choice. Though these two studies were examining different research questions, they both pointed out that students who are more motivated and persist through challenges are more likely to identify as engineers.…”

Work in Progress: Impacts of Engineering-Adjacent Participation On Identity and Motivation in Engineering

“…We have found initial evidence that students' expectancies and identities, in part, play a role in students' activity selection processes. Research in engineering identity continues to suggest that students with a greater sense of belonging tend to identify as engineers, and have greater motivation to persist [22], [23]. Students' sense of belonging has also been linked to their involvement in activities, inferring that students who participate in extra-and co-curricular activities identify more as engineers, increasing their motivation to become future engineers [4], [24].…”