ASEE 2010: Using the Emergent Methodology of Domain Analysis to Answer Complex Research Questions.

As engineering education research matures, engineering education researchers seek to answer increasingly complex questions rooted in social situations, such as “What is engineering in various communities?” and “How does engineering work happen at various stages of professional development?”   The desire to ask such questions leads the community to develop or incorporate diverse methods that help the community to answer the complex question. The purpose of this paper is to present to the engineering education community an introduction to domain analysis, an ethnographic method developed within anthropology designed to answer these complex questions.

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ASEE 2010: Modeling the career pathways of women STEM faculty through oral histories and participatory research methods.

Women increasingly earn advanced degrees in science, technology, and mathematics (STEM), yet remain underrepresented among STEM faculty. Much of the existing research on this underrepresentation relies on “chilly climate” and “pipeline” theoretical models to explain this phenomenon. However, the extent to which these models follow women’s actual career pathways has been undertheorized. Further, alternative metaphors may more aptly describe the career pathways of women STEM faculty. In our broader research project, we examine the ways women’s career pathways into STEM faculty positions are similar to and/or different from chilly climate and pipeline models, and if they vary based on race and/or ethnicity. At present, we focus on the ways oral histories and participatory research methods allow us to model the career pathways of women STEM faculty.

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ASEE 2010: Institutional Ethnography: A research method to investigate the work-life experiences of women faculty members in STEM disciplines

Women and people of color continue to be underrepresented among engineering faculty. A diverse engineering faculty body is important because it increases the likelihood of equitable hiring practices and reduces the likelihood of a hostile workplace climate, among other reasons. In turn, research hypothesizes that a diverse engineering faculty body will attract, recruit, and retain diverse students to the engineering profession. While there are a bevy of research papers published every year to address this persistent concern, there are few new or innovative ideas informing our theoretical groundwork for understanding these underrepresentations.

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ASEE 2010: “The image of a woman engineer:” Women’s identities as engineers as portrayed by historical newspapers and magazines, 1930-1970

The Society of Women Engineers’ National Collection is an archive with rich potential for investigating the historical story of women’s identities as engineers. Filled with newspaper and magazine clippings, oral histories of pioneer women engineers, and SWE’s own institutional history, these archives allow us to see how women engineers were skillfully positioned as acceptably feminine, despite their peculiar profession. Continue reading “ASEE 2010: “The image of a woman engineer:” Women’s identities as engineers as portrayed by historical newspapers and magazines, 1930-1970”