Broadening participation in engineering, increasing students interest in engineering, and increasing technological literacy are concerns that engineering programs and engineering education researchers continue to address. One important group to consider in this process is parents. Parents play a number of roles in engineering education: they can motivate interest in engineering in early childhood, they can provide support when their child is in the process of selecting a major at college, they can provide experiences for learning engineering concepts and skills, and can serve as role models if they themselves are engineers. Using multiple case study analysis, this paper examines different roles parents play in engineering education through five distinct studies. In these five studies, participants range from parents of young children up to high school age, in a variety of different settings. The collection of these five studies provides unique insights into a more comprehensive understanding of the ways that parents are engaged in engineering education.

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Before turning her focus on the intersection of education and equity, Meagan worked as an engineer for Texas Instruments. Meagan was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and she holds a PhD in engineering education from Purdue University, a MS in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University, and a BS in computer science from Texas Woman's University.Meagan currently develops programs and products that help educators improve equity in the classroom, ultimately toincrease the participation of women and students of color in high-demand, high-wage careers.As an engineer turned educator, Meagan is focused on engineering equity into education.