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1. Unpacking professional shame: Patterns of White male engineering students living in and out of threats to their identities

   https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20381  

   Huff, James_L; Okai, Benjamin; Shanachilubwa, Kanembe; Sochacka, Nicola_W; Walther, Joachim (March 2021, Journal of Engineering Education)

   Abstract BackgroundAlthough prior research has provided robust descriptions of engineering students' identity development, a gap in the literature exists related to students' emotional experiences of shame, which undergird the socially constructed expectations of their professional formation. PurposeWe examined the lived experiences of professional shame among White male engineering students in the United States. We conceptualize professional shame to be a painful emotional state that occurs when one perceives they have failed to meet socially constructed expectations or standards that are relevant to their identity in a professional domain. MethodWe conducted unstructured interviews with nine White male engineering students from both a research‐focused institution and a teaching‐focused institution. We used interpretative phenomenological analysis to examine the interview transcripts. ResultsThe findings demonstrated four themes related to how participants experienced professional shame. First, they negotiated their global, or holistic, identities in the engineering domain. Second, they experienced threats to their identities within professional contexts. Third, participants responded to threats in ways that gave prominence to the standards they perceived themselves to have failed. Finally, they repaired their identities through reframing shame experiences and seeking social connection. ConclusionsThe findings demonstrate that the professional shame phenomenon is interwoven with professional identity development. In experiencing professional shame, White male students might reproduce the shame experience for themselves and others. This finding has important implications for the standards against which members from underrepresented groups may compare themselves and provides insight into the social construction of engineering cultures by dominant groups. 

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2. "I'm looking at you, you're a perfectly good person …”: Describing non-apparent disability in engineering

   https://doi.org/https://strategy.asee.org/36059  

   Zongrone, C.; McCall, C.; Paretti, M. C.; Shew, A.; Simmons, D. R.; McNair, L. D. (January 2021, Collaborative Network for Engineerign and Computing Diversity)

   null (Ed.)

   In recent years, studies in engineering education have begun to intentionally integrate disability into discussions of diversity, inclusion, and equity. To broaden and advocate for the participation of this group in engineering, researchers have identified a variety of factors that have kept people with disabilities at the margins of the field. Such factors include the underrepresentation of disabled individuals within research and industry; systemic and personal barriers, and sociocultural expectations within and beyond engineering education-related contexts. These findings provide a foundational understanding of the external and environmental influences that can shape how students with disabilities experience higher education, develop a sense of belonging, and ultimately form professional identities as engineers. Prior work examining the intersections of disability identity and professional identity is limited, with little to no studies examining the ways in which students conceptualize, define, and interpret disability as a category of identity during their undergraduate engineering experience. This lack of research poses problems for recruitment, retention, and inclusion, particularly as existing studies have shown that the ways in which students perceive and define themselves in relation to their college major is crucial for the development of a professional engineering identity. Further, due to variation in defining ‘disability’ across national agencies (e.g., the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Justice) and disability communities (with different models of disability), the term “disability” is broad and often misunderstood, frequently referring to a group of individuals with a wide range of conditions and experiences. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain deeper insights into the ways students define disability and disability identity within their own contexts as they develop professional identities. Specifically, we ask the following research question: How do students describe and conceptualize non-apparent disabilities? To answer this research question, we draw from emergent findings from an on-going grounded theory exploration of professional identity formation of undergraduate civil engineering students with disabilities. In this paper, we focus our discussion on the grounded theory analyses of 4 semi-structured interviews with participants who have disclosed a non-apparent disability. Study participants consist of students currently enrolled in undergraduate civil engineering programs, students who were initially enrolled in undergraduate civil engineering programs and transferred to another major, and students who have recently graduated from a civil engineering program within the past year. Sensitizing concepts emerged as findings from the initial grounded theory analysis to guide and initiate our inquiry: 1) the medical model of disability, 2) the social model of disability, and 3) personal experience. First, medical models of disability position physical, cognitive, and developmental difference as a “sickness” or “condition” that must be “treated”. From this perspective, disability is perceived as an impairment that must be accommodated so that individuals can obtain a dominantly-accepted sense of normality. An example of medical models within the education context include accommodations procedures in which students must obtain an official diagnosis in order to access tools necessary for academic success. Second, social models of disability position disability as a dynamic and fluid identity that consists of a variety of physical, cognitive, or developmental differences. Dissenting from assumptions of normality and the focus on individual bodily conditions (hallmarks of the medical model), the social model focuses on the political and social structures that inherently create or construct disability. An example of a social model within the education context includes the universal design of materials and tools that are accessible to all students within a given course. In these instances, students are not required to request accommodations and may, consequently, bypass medical diagnoses. Lastly, participants referred to their own life experiences as a way to define, describe, and consider disability. Fernando considers his stutter to be a disability because he is often interrupted, spoken over, or silenced when engaging with others. In turn, he is perceived as unintelligent and unfit to be a civil engineer by his peers. In contrast, David, who identifies as autistic, does not consider himself to be disabled. These experiences highlight the complex intersections of medical and social models of disability and their contextual influences as participants navigate their lives. While these sensitizing concepts are not meant to scope the research, they provide a useful lens for initiating research and provides markers on which a deeper, emergent analysis is expanded. Findings from this work will be used to further explore the professional identity formation of undergraduate civil engineering students with disabilities. These findings will provide engineering education researchers and practitioners with insights regarding the ways individuals with disabilities interpret their in- and out-of-classroom experiences and navigate their disability identities. For higher education, broadly, this work aims to reinforce the complex and diverse nature of disability experience and identity, particularly as it relates to accommodations and accessibility within the classroom, and expand the inclusiveness of our programs and institutions. 

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3. CS Teaching and Racial Identities in Interaction: A Case for Discourse Analytic Methods

   Hubbard Cheuoua, Aleata (August 2023, 2023 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research)

   Motivation. Teachers can play a role in disrupting social inequities that are reflected in education, such as racial disparities in who succeeds in CS. Professional learning addressing inequities causes teachers to confront difficult topics, including how their own identities impact these problems. Understanding the differing ways teachers’ identities surface can provide insights into designing better supports for their professional learning. Objectives. The goal of this paper is to examine the teaching and racial identities of two secondary CS teachers who participated in professional learning focused on combining CS content and equity pedagogy. The second goal of this paper is to demonstrate how discourse analytic methods can be used to examine interviews and other interactional data. Method. Teachers were interviewed individually about their teaching identity, racial identity, and professional learning. Drawing on Bucholtz and Hall’s identity and interaction framework, interviews were examined for linguistic and discursive features reflecting positionality (i.e., how identity surfaces through the way individuals present themselves to and are perceived by others) and indexicality (i.e., various ways of referring to an identity). Results. Participants used personal deictics, quotative markers, code choice, and affective and epistemic stances when discussing and negotiating their identities with the interviewer. The data reflected ways teachers problematized questions about teaching identity, negotiated tensions in their disciplinary identities, found the topic of race difficult to address, and highlighted other aspects of their identities relevant to understanding and discussing race. Discussion. The study provides a demonstration of how discourse analytic methods can reveal nuances of teacher identity that may be overlooked with other qualitative approaches. Findings also revealed how teachers’ ethnic identities might be used as a lever in helping teachers discuss the difficult topic of race in education. Discourse analytic methods are encouraged for future CS education research focused on interactional analyses. 

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

   Groen-McCall, C.; McNair, L. D.; Paretti, M. C.; Shew, A.; Simmons, D. R. (June 2019, American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference)

   The ways in which students encounter school can markedly shape how they form professional identities and continue into the engineering workforce. This is particularly true for those students who experience a variety of disabilities, as they must simultaneously manage and navigate disability-related cultural, academic, physical, and bureaucratic university structures and form professional identities. In this paper, we describe the evolution of an ongoing NSF-sponsored project exploring professional identity formation in undergraduate civil engineering students with disabilities as they experience their undergraduate careers and move into the workforce. To provide context for this ongoing work, we summarize the background, sensitizing concepts, and updated research procedures underpinning this study. We then focus our discussion on our emergent findings to-date, which includes the identification of a sub-process referred to as Establishing Definitions of Self. Overall, these findings begin to highlight the nuance and fluidity of disability identity as students form professional identities as civil engineers. 

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5. Narratives of Identity Coherence and Separation in the Figured Worlds of Undergraduate Engineering Education

   Van Dyke, Gabriel; McCall, Cassandra; Kali, Maimuna Begum; Secules, Stephen (July 2023, ASEE annual conference exposition)

   Abstract During their engineering programs, undergraduate students participate in the culture of engineering education to make meaning of themselves as they form professional identities. In this paper, we draw from Holland and colleagues’ theory of identity, agency, and figured worlds to further understand how undergraduate students make meaning of their identities as they participate in the figured world of engineering education. Our thematic narrative analysis revealed two types of narratives: (1) Narratives of Coherence that highlight the ways participants reconfigure normative identity roles in figured worlds to make space for their minoritized identities within engineering education, and (2) Narratives of Separation where participants maintain normative identity roles by either intentionally or unintentionally separating their minoritized identities from engineering activities. These findings point to strategies of perspective-building for supporting students and providing opportunities for contributing to a broader culture of inclusion in engineering classrooms. 

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