Missing from the Classroom: Current Representations of Disability in Engineering Education

Board 52: Exploring Professional Identity Development in Undergraduate Civil Engineering Students Who Experience Disabilities

“…While current work in engineering education includes studies addressing the experiences of students based on gender, race, ethnicity, class, and, more recently, sexual orientation, little if any work considers the experiences of students with disabilities. In her literature review, Svyantek [5] reveals this lack of work, stating that "within engineering education, the experiences of the disabled community, of disabled students, and of disabled engineers are not yet part of our concepts of diversity and inclusion" (p. 5). Yet research in higher education broadly suggests that cognitive, developmental, and physical disabilities can markedly impact the ways in which students experience school and the ways in which they develop their professional identities [1].…”

“…The same pattern holds in engineering education research. While engineering education has focused attention on broadening participation [3,4] and increasing diversity for several decades, gender and race have dominated these efforts, with virtually no work addressing students with disabilities [2,5]. At the same time, a number of calls, including those from national agencies such as the National Science Foundation [6] and the American Institutes for Research [3] implore educators and researchers to broaden participation in STEM fields to those with disabilities.…”

Board 7: Work in Progress: Toy Adaptation as Engineering Outreach to Diverse High School Students

“…Furthermore, we will continue our initial efforts to investigate the perceptions of toy adaptation and disability in students who have varying levels of interaction with individuals with disabilities [5]. The importance of further work involving disability in the field of engineering education is underscored by a recent literature review [28] that showed very few studies include disability as an identity among underrepresented groups in engineering.…”

Board 102: Exploring Professional Identity Formation in Undergraduate Civil Engineering Students Who Experience Disabilities: Establishing Definitions of Self

“…The underrepresentation and marginalization of students with disabilities in secondary and higher education, particularly within engineering, reflects the lack of student support within the K-12 space [1], [4] as well as the lack of scholarly attention in leading higher education journals [1] and engineering education research [5], [6]. Prior work has shown that the ways in which engineering students with disabilities encounter school can significantly shape the ways in which they form professional identities and continue into the engineering workforce [1], [7].…”