The Role of Gender in Pre-college Students' Perceptions of Engineering

Abstract

Avneet is a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her research interests include K-12 education and first year engineering in the light of the engineering design process, and inclusion of digital fabrication labs into classrooms. Her current work at the FACE lab is on the use of classroom Makerspaces for an interest-based framework of engineering design. She is also interested in cross-cultural work in engineering education to promote access and equity. She is an aerospace engineer, and is the present Vice President (Educational Content) of the Student Platform for Engineering Education Development (SPEED).

An Investigation of Children’s, Parents’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of Engineers and Engineering

“…• Engineers are male, 'geeks' and 'nerds', exhibiting physical traits such as glasses, lab coats or pale skin (Hirsch et al, 2014;Leeker et al, 2017;Rivale et al, 2011). • Engineers are exceptional at science, technology and mathematics but lack many social skills, particularly in communication, teamwork, organisation and leadership (Bazylak et al, 2016(Bazylak et al, , 2017.…”