The Journal of Engineering Education is the premiere journal that publishes engineering education research in the US, and some argue globally. Yet the research it publishes on gender in engineering seems to be theoretically impoverished. This study explores characterizing the gender-related research published in the Journal of Engineering Education selected from 1998-2012 to explore how researchers publishing in JEE study and publish on the topic of gender.
Goals: The goal is to explore the differences in how engineers write about gender in comparison with sociologists and other social theorists who use gender theory in order to better understand men’s overrepresentation in engineering (and other gendered disciplines).
Research Questions: How do authors write about gender in JEE? How does this compare to existing gender theory prevalent in the social sciences? How can gender theory from sociology and women’s studies be used to understand gendered disciplines like engineering and men’s overrepresentation?
Methods: This project used papers drawn from the 1998-2012 issues of the Journal of Engineering Education, (the premiere engineering education research journal) as qualitative data. These data are analyzed at different levels of analysis (sentence, paragraph, paper, title) through qualitative emergent coding.
Members who have worked on this project: Lindsey Nelson, Corey Schimpf.
Publications:
- Nelson, Lindsey and Alice L. Pawley. “Using the Emergent Methodology of Domain Analysis to Answer Complex Research Questions.” Conference proceedings of the 2010 American Society for Engineering Education National Conference and Exposition, Louisville KY, June 20-23. Article; presentation.
- Pawley, A. L.,* Schimpf, C, and Nelson, L. (2016), “Gender in Engineering Education Research: A Content Analysis of Research in JEE, 1998–2012.” Journal of Engineering Education., 105(3): 508–528. doi:10.1002/jee.20128. Article.