On the development of a professional identity: engineering persisters vs engineering switchers

Abstract

Decline in engineering enrollment continues and renewed efforts are required to improve enrollment and diversity. Herein, we address this problem by conducting research to understand engineering students through the lens of identity theory. Implications of this effort are twofold: (1) to contribute to our basic understanding of engineering students' identities as well as what factors (experiences and settings) foster the formation and transformation of these identities during the undergraduate experience, and from these findings (2) to gain insight into improving recruitment and retention of engineering students, particularly students underrepresented in engineering. By conducting focus groups and interviews, our goal was to understand professional identity development in freshman engineering persisters and freshman engineering switchers. Initial findings suggest that exposure to meaningful engineering-related experiences and engineers are critical in developing an engineer identity. Our future efforts involve understanding the longitudinal nature of professional identity development (from freshman to senior years).Index Terms -freshman engineering students, identity theory, identity development, recruitment and retention. MOTIVATION AND RELEVANCE

Designing the Identities of Engineers

“…225-6, 232). This is not simply an issue of personality; organizational, institutional, and situational factors play a role in shaping identity (Olga Pierrakos et al, 2010).…”

Exploring the Impact of Engineering Student and Professor Expectations on the Development of Student Engineering Identity and Navigation

“…Perhaps this initial hesitation and uncertainty ends up causing a great number of college engineering students to question whether or not they want to pursue a career in engineering after graduation if they persist in the major that long; Lichtenstein et al reported that only 42% of college engineering seniors in their study definitely intended to pursue a career in engineering upon graduation 28 . Research seems to suggest that students who have a limited knowledge of the profession and limited experience with engineering like activities before college are more likely to switch out of the major 26 . This evidence seems to reinforce the idea that every individual student has a different view / understanding of engineering identity; due to their various backgrounds, pressures, motivations, and expectations of engineering, individuals likely shape their own definitions of what an engineer is as well as how they fit that image.…”

“…To me, what stands out as particularly striking is the superiority that Kimmy attributes to engineering majors. Kimmy's response seems to highlight how individuals that categorize themselves as part of a group, in this case engineers, leads them to display in-group favoritism when comparing themselves to other groups 26 . I believe that these sorts of beliefs are likely very influential in the formation for student identity development and navigation.…”

“…The quote seems to highlight his belief that one can only be a successful engineer if they are truly passionate about it and that regardless of different pressures that may be forcing one to switch out of engineering, one must have an internal pressure and passion keeping them in it. Engineering students without strong intrinsic motivation to study engineering, such as Jimmy's friend is being pushed into the field, are more likely to switch out of the engineering major 26 .…”

“…The answer to this question likely depends a great deal on who is asked; the CEO or hiring manager of an engineering firm, a college engineering professor, as well as an undergraduate engineering student are likely to all provide different responses to this seemingly straight forward question. Despite these likely discrepancies, it would seem that the identity of an "engineer" is held as a universal constant in engineering education research conducted through the lens of identity theory 13,14,19,26 .…”