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1. Nascent Professional Identity Development in Freshman Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Women

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--34991  

   Ofori-Boadu, Andrea N.; Ofori-Boadu, Victor; Vanderpool, Jacob; Deng, Dongyang (June 2020, ASEE annual conference exposition)

   Miller, Eva (Ed.)

   Nascent Professional Identity Development in Freshman Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Women Increasing the persistence of talented women into male-dominated architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professions could reduce prevailing workforce shortages and improve gender diversity in AEC industry. Identity theorists advocate that professional identity development (PID) improves students’ persistence to become professionals. However, little empirical research exists to inform and guide AEC educators and professionals on AEC-PID in undergraduate AEC women. As the preliminary part of a larger nationwide and longitudinal research study investigating PID processes in undergraduate AEC women, the objective of this research is to examine the characteristics and nascent AEC-PID in 69 women enrolled in freshman AEC courses in five U.S. institutions. A purposive sampling approach ensures participants have a wide range of demographic characteristics. Data from a recruitment survey is analyzed using the NVivo qualitative data analysis software. Content and relational inductive open coding are conducted vertically for each participant and horizontally across different participants. Results indicate passion/interest, inherent abilities, significant others, benefits from industry, and desire to contribute to industry influence decisions to pursue AEC careers. With 52% of participants having science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) subject preferences, an in vivo code, Perfect Middle Ground, demonstrated the quest to combine STEM and visual art preferences in AEC career decisions. A participant noted that ‘this major (civil engineering) is the perfect middle ground because I can be creative, but still use my strong gift which happens to be math’. Girls with STEAM strengths and passion, particularly in math and fine art, are most likely to develop nascent AEC-PID. Beyond STEM pre-college programs, AEC educators should consider recruiting from sports, as well as visual and performing arts events for pre-college students. Participants’ positive views focus on the importance and significant societal impact of the AEC industry; while, negative views focus on the lack of gender and racial diversity. A combination of participants’ AEC professional experiences and views reveal four increasing levels of nascent AEC-PID which are categorized as the 4Ps: Plain, Passive, Progressive, and Proactive. As a guide to AEC education and professional communities, recommendations are made to increase the AEC-PID of women in each category. With the highest nascent AEC-PID, women in the Proactive category should serve as leaders in AEC classrooms and student organizations. Considering their AEC professional experience and enthusiasm, they should serve as peer mentors to other students, particularly AEC women. Furthermore, they should be given the opportunity to step into more complex roles during internships and encouraged to pursue co-op opportunities. Insights can guide more targeted recruitment, mentoring, preparation, and retention interventions that strengthen the persistence of the next generation of AEC women professionals. In the long term, this could reduce AEC workforce shortages, improve gender diversity, and foster the innovation and development of more gender friendly AEC products and services. 

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2. Development of a Femalized Kinesthetic Learning Model to Increase Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Career Interests in African American Middle School Girls

   Fash, M F (December 2024, ProQuest LLC)

   Although an increase in their participation could reduce workforce shortages and diversify innovations in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry, African American women remain significantly underrepresented in male-dominated AEC careers. Furthermore, partly due to the lack of early and meaningful AEC exposure, African American girls tend to have low interests in AEC careers. AEC infused out-of-school time (OST) programs have been successful in increasing middle-school girls’ AEC career self-efficacy and interests. However, there is limited understanding on how salient identities interact with learning experiences in AEC-infused OST learning environments to impact AEC career interests. The purpose of this research is to investigate how the salient identities of African American middle-school girls interact with learning experiences within a developed femalized AEC Kinesthetic Learning Model (fAEC-KLM) to impact AEC career interests. Adopting Lent’s social cognitive career theory, the gender and culturally responsive fAEC-KLM is a five-day AEC-infused OST program that engaged 14 African American middle-school girls in bridge-building projects, a panel session with female and African American AEC undergraduates, interactions with female and African American AEC professionals, and success stories featuring female and African American AEC professionals. Using a mixed method approach, data from interviews, surveys, tests, and observations are analyzed to assess changes in AEC career knowledge, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and interests. Results show that the most effective fAEC-KLM components were lectures, bridge construction project, and peer interactions which improved AEC career knowledge, self-efficacy, and sense of belonging respectively. These in turn increased AEC career interests and three interest categories (active, passive, and null) are utilized to explain how varying fAEC-KLM interactions contributed to three different levels of AEC career interests. The findings align with prior career development and intersectionality frameworks. Findings also fill a critical gap in career development literature by providing insights into AEC career interest development processes in African American middle school girls through OST programs while highlighting how gender and culturally responsive approaches foster interests. Insights and recommendations contribute to ongoing literature to support interventions and policies that foster more equitable representation in AEC careers, increase diversity in AEC innovations, and reduce workforce shortages. 

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3. Impact of a Femalized Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Kinesthetic Learning Model on the AEC Career Knowledge, Self-efficacy, and Outcome Expectations of African American Middle School Girls

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--49441  

   Fash, Mercy; Ofori-Boadu, Andrea (October 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   Bandyopadhyay, A; Anderson, E (Ed.)

   Engaging African American middle school girls in out-of-school-time (OST) Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) programs can significantly boost their knowledge and awareness of these traditionally male-dominated fields. This study adopts Lent’s Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) and Bandura’s self-efficacy theory to assess the impact of a femalized AEC kinesthetic learning model (fAEC-KLM) on the AEC career knowledge, selfefficacy, and outcome expectations (KSO) of African American middle school girls. Fourteen (14) African American middle school girls from Guilford County, NC, participated in pre- and post-intervention interviews, evaluating how the fAEC-KLM model influenced their AEC career knowledge, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations. Inductive thematic analysis of transcribed interviews using NVIVO qualitative software revealed key components of the fAEC-KLM that impacted KSO. Components such as lectures, peer interactions, and kinesthetic/experiential learning interacted with participants’ learning experiences (prior OST educational programs, familial social support, deficient/adequate mathematical pedagogy, and pre-collegiate engineering education). These factors collectively enhanced participants’ AEC career knowledge, bolstered their self-efficacy, and shaped their outcome expectations. The findings highlight the efficacy of targeted AEC activities within the fAEC-KLM in boosting career knowledge, selfefficacy, and outcome expectations, offering critical insights for developing OST programs that encourage African American middle school girls to pursue careers in AEC fields. These results emphasize the need for such initiatives to reduce the gender gap in STEM and AEC professions, contributing to broader efforts to diversify these vital sectors. 

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4. The Complexity of Nonbinary Gender Inclusion in Engineering Culture

   Haverkamp, A. (June 2018, ASEE annual conference & exposition)

   Gender in engineering is a long-standing source of inquiry, research, outreach, and discussion as inequity in demographics and negative experiences persist in the field. Women consist of just approximately 20% of our engineering undergraduate programs nationally, and roughly 14% of our national professional workforce. Absent from these numbers and research into gender minority experiences are students who lay further on the margins of discussion, awareness, inclusion, and acknowledgement of existence - students who identify as nonbinary or other genders aside from man or woman. This paper presents background literature on gender, gender minority experiences in higher education, nonbinary gender identity, and aims to present points of discussion to facilitate further engagement with a more nuanced understanding of gender in engineering. Gender as a social system is defined by multiplicity and fluidity and does not fit within two unitary and discrete categories. The majority of current gender in engineering scholarship utilizes a conceptualization of gender which does not acknowledge or incorporate more than two gender options, and is rooted in increasingly rejected notions of biological essentialism. Nonbinary and gender nonconforming students, some of which also identify within the transgender population, exist in liminal spaces throughout society and higher education, and continuation of this scholarship tacitly denies their existence by framing gender as intrinsically linked to two biological categories. Engineering professionals, faculty, and students who identify as neither men nor women must be included and our conversation be expanded for academically rigorous investigation into gender dynamics and create inclusive engineering spaces. Conversations around gender neutral bathrooms are just the beginnings of widespread cultural change to support gender expansive engineers. The discipline must re-think our approaches towards gender equity in engineering and the theoretical conceptualization of gender to not only frame its inequity through the sharp underrepresentation of women, but its gender dynamics as experienced by nonbinary and gender nonconforming students. We must continue to make space for marginalized gender identities and gendered experiences. Through reviewing existing literature and integrating my own intimate experiences I seek to discuss preliminary efforts towards nonbinary inclusion in our teaching, professionalization, and language. This paper represents a point of entry for discussing nonbinary inclusion as part of the discipline's continued commitment to cultural change surrounding gender. 

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5. The Complexity of Nonbinary Gender Inclusion in Engineering Culture

   Haverkamp, A. (June 2018, ASEE annual conference & exposition)

   Gender in engineering is a long-standing source of inquiry, research, outreach, and discussion as inequity in demographics and negative experiences persist in the field. Women consist of just approximately 20% of our engineering undergraduate programs nationally, and roughly 14% of our national professional workforce. Absent from these numbers and research into gender minority experiences are students who lay further on the margins of discussion, awareness, inclusion, and acknowledgement of existence - students who identify as nonbinary or other genders aside from man or woman. This paper presents background literature on gender, gender minority experiences in higher education, nonbinary gender identity, and aims to present points of discussion to facilitate further engagement with a more nuanced understanding of gender in engineering. Gender as a social system is defined by multiplicity and fluidity and does not fit within two unitary and discrete categories. The majority of current gender in engineering scholarship utilizes a conceptualization of gender which does not acknowledge or incorporate more than two gender options, and is rooted in increasingly rejected notions of biological essentialism. Nonbinary and gender nonconforming students, some of which also identify within the transgender population, exist in liminal spaces throughout society and higher education, and continuation of this scholarship tacitly denies their existence by framing gender as intrinsically linked to two biological categories. Engineering professionals, faculty, and students who identify as neither men nor women must be included and our conversation be expanded for academically rigorous investigation into gender dynamics and create inclusive engineering spaces. Conversations around gender neutral bathrooms are just the beginnings of widespread cultural change to support gender expansive engineers. The discipline must re-think our approaches towards gender equity in engineering and the theoretical conceptualization of gender to not only frame its inequity through the sharp underrepresentation of women, but its gender dynamics as experienced by nonbinary and gender nonconforming students. We must continue to make space for marginalized gender identities and gendered experiences. Through reviewing existing literature and integrating my own intimate experiences I seek to discuss preliminary efforts towards nonbinary inclusion in our teaching, professionalization, and language. This paper represents a point of entry for discussing nonbinary inclusion as part of the discipline's continued commitment to cultural change surrounding gender. 

   more » « less