Theorizing Can Contribute to Marginalized Students' Agency in Engineering Persistence

Abstract

Stephen is an Education PhD student at UMCP, researching engineering education. He has a prior academic and professional background in engineering, having worked as an engineer and project manager in building acoustics consulting firms for 5 years prior to becoming an educational researcher. His research interests include socio-cultural dimensions of engineering classrooms. Dr. Ayush Gupta, University of Maryland, College ParkAyush Gupta is Research Assistant Professor in Physics and Keystone Instructor in the A. J. Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. Broadly speaking he is interested in modeling learning and reasoning processes. In particular, he is attracted to fine-grained analysis of video data both from a microgenetic learning analysis methodology (drawing on knowledge in pieces) as well as interaction analysis methodology. He has been working on how learners' emotions are coupled with their conceptual and epistemological reasoning. He is also interested in developing models of the dynamics of categorizations (ontological) underlying students' reasoning in physics. Lately, he has been interested in engineering design thinking, how engineering students come to understand and practice design. Andrew Elby, University of Maryland, College ParkMy work focuses on student and teacher epistemologies and how they couple to other cognitive machinery and help to drive behavior in learning environments. My academic training was in Physics and Philosophy before I turned to science (particularly physics) education research. More recently, I have started exploring engineering students' entangled identities and epistemologies.c American Society for Engineering Education, 2015Page 26.1582.1Theorizing can contribute to marginalized students' agency in engineering persistence. AbstractWithin research on retention and persistence in STEM, the concept of student agency is typically treated as a personal characteristic or as an element of coping and navigational strategies. The act of theorizing about one's own experiences and persistence is under-explored as a source of taking agency. Through interviews with a woman in the first year of an undergraduate engineering major, we examine the role that theorizing about engineering culture and her own experiences plays in her constructing a narrative of persistence that counters the prominent perceived narratives marginalizing her position in engineering.

Supporting the Narrative Agency of a Marginalized Engineering Student

“…As part of an in‐depth member check, the conference paper version and argument were presented to and discussed with Emilia (Secules, Gupta, & Elby, ), including providing opportunities to correct and edit the results and interpretations. Finding that the paper resonated with Emilia, Stephen asked her if she would participate in the writing by discussing the role of these conversations in her educational experiences and persistence.…”

Negotiating Gender in an Engineering Environment

“…As a lesbian, Andrea was perhaps more comfortable with bucking gender roles and preferred an androgynous approach to engineering "so I'm less able to be boxed in." Andrea's comment was not unlike what was described by Secules, Gupta, and Elby (2015), in that Andrea did not want to be marginalized based on gender.…”

New Directions from Theory: Implications for Diversity Support from the Theories of Intersectionality and Liberatory Pedagogy

“…The aspect of student agency in critical theorizing may have broad implications for the implied positionality of students participating in diversity support programs [25]. Whereas most of the aforementioned programs which focus on improving individuals' skills position the underrepresented minority student as inherently needing help, programs which engage students in acts of theorizing may enhance their agency and empower students to connect to resources.…”