A Longitudinal Study of the Dimensions of Disciplinary Culture to Enhance Innovation and Retention among Engineering Students

Murzi, Homero; Martin, Thomas; McNair, Lisa D.; Paretti, Marie C.

doi:10.18260/p.26351

Cited by 4 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…First, there are different disciplinary perceptions and motivations regarding accepting risks. For example, disciplines like industrial and systems engineering have relatively low uncertainty avoidance [39] because of the many different career paths students can take and how flexible is the discipline in terms of the type of problems they solve. In contrast, disciplines like Civil Engineering are required to have less acceptance of uncertainty because of the type of work they do [40], [41].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We consider this result to be important and that has several implications for how engineering students will operate across disciplines. Research suggest that engineering students tend overall to be more individualistic [6], [39], [42]. Part of this characteristic comes from the fact that early in their academic programs, engineering student courses tend to focus on more individualistic learning (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Understanding Students’ Perceptions of Dimensions of Engineering Culture in Ecuador

Guerra

Murzi

Woods

et al.

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

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He holds degrees in Industrial Engineering (BS, MS), Master of Business Administration (MBA) and in Engineering Education (PhD). Homero has 15 years of international experience working in industry and academia. His research focuses on contemporary and inclusive pedagogical practices, industry-driven competency development in engineering, and understanding the barriers that Latinx and Native Americans have in engineering. Homero has been recognized as a Diggs scholar, a Graduate Academy for Teaching Excellence fellow, a Diversity scholar, a Fulbright scholar and was inducted in the Bouchet Honor Society.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Students’ Perceptions of Dimensions of Engineering Culture in Ecuador

Guerra

Murzi

Woods

et al.

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

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“…Masculine cultures thus experience a greater gap between men's and women's roles [9], [10], [12] Despite Hofstede's theory receiving some criticism (see [14] for full details), we consider there is value in testing Hofstede's theory of dimensions of national culture in academic settings. Hofstede's model uses dimensions of culture that have been validated in a variety of contexts and scenarios [14], [15], and we have been using his theory to explore different engineering disciplines [6]- [8], [8], [14].…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, content validity was discussed and determined by the researchers in consensus. Third, construct validity is addressed by using a survey that has been proven to be an effective tool to assess the cultural dimensions of a group [6] for review and the authors even demonstrated its validity in academic settings [15].…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, this initial paper, as part of a multi-country project, focuses on understanding how students from two major universities in the United States (U.S.) and Ecuador, characterize their cultural orientations to provide a better perspective on how to create classrooms that consider those cultural similarities and differences to positively impact students' learning and development [6]. The engineering culture in the U.S. is "often characterized as masculine, individualistic, and function-oriented" ( [7], p.1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cultural Dimensions in Academic Disciplines, a Comparison Between Ecuador and the United States of America

Murzi¹,

Ulloa²,

Gamboa³

et al.

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

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Culturally Responsive Engineering Education: Creativity Through “Empowered to Change” in the U.S. and “Admonished to Preserve” in Japan

Misaki

Furue

et al.

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

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Enhancing creativity is an indispensable goal of many engineering courses. However, with flourishment of global collaboration in various engineering classrooms and best educational practices being replicated across cultures, there are not many curriculum interventions that originate from students' diverse cultural needs. When cultural differences are ignored, students may get culturally biased grades and face confusion and difficulties. For instance, the notion of "disruption" and "breakthrough" in product design innovation is culturally and locally shaped in the U.S. and might be considered undesirable in Japan. For example, Japanese students coming to a U.S. university for a co-final presentation with their U.S. student partners may get ill-evaluated due to lack of articulation on how their ideas break through the status quo. This is problematic given that student evaluation is less based on traditional exams of fundamental science knowledge, but rather increasingly subject to culturally-shaped experience.The paper is centered around the idea that engineers are motivated by the cultural values with which they identify. In the U.S., the motivation to promote change is widely held to underpin the generation of new ideas and value creation. In contrast, preservation is perceived as demanding but taken very seriously in Japan and change from this perspective can be seen as an unconstrained, irresponsible mission that requires less effort.The paper empirically examines the cultural dimensions of creativity in engineering education, specifically how engineering students' motivations for creative problem-solving are different in the U.S. than in Japan. A cross-cultural survey study was designed and run to test the hypothesis that Japanese (U.S.) engineers are more (less) motivated to create new ideas when they are asked to preserve rather than change something. We will share the encouraging preliminary results and discuss implications. Engineers across different cultures have the capacity of both -create to change, and create to preserve. But different cultures emphasize different values. If engineering educators (and managers at organizations) of a certain sociocultural context celebrate their cultural values and restrict others, either consciously or not, this would put people with different values at disadvantage. With the salient power dynamics between educators (managers) and students (junior employees), this means alienation, misjudgment and disconnection. The paper underlies the importance for educators to learn about the different cultural forces behind different engineering behaviors. The research contributes to the cross-cultural literature of engineering education.

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A Longitudinal Study of the Dimensions of Disciplinary Culture to Enhance Innovation and Retention among Engineering Students

Cited by 4 publications

References 48 publications

Understanding Students’ Perceptions of Dimensions of Engineering Culture in Ecuador

Understanding Students’ Perceptions of Dimensions of Engineering Culture in Ecuador

Cultural Dimensions in Academic Disciplines, a Comparison Between Ecuador and the United States of America

Culturally Responsive Engineering Education: Creativity Through “Empowered to Change” in the U.S. and “Admonished to Preserve” in Japan

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