Construction Research Congress 2020
The Typical and Ideal Engineer, as Seen by Our Students
Publication: Construction Research Congress 2020: Safety, Workforce, and Education
ABSTRACT
It is unfortunately a well-established fact that females and minorities are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; this trend holds true for construction engineering also. This raises equity and inclusion issues regarding learning and identification and questions about who students are obligated to be in a setting and who students are becoming in a setting. Considering the context of technical work in relation to engineering identities, such as the attributes of the engineer of 2020, engineering and engineers are positioned as making a difference in the world. This has implications for re-shaping students’ developing engineering identities in ways that have potential for attracting a wider pool of students to the discipline. As part of a larger project that explores this relationship, this paper is a first step in exploring students’ perceptions of engineering identity. In our analysis, we found that students described the typical engineer as a problem solver, analytical, smart, and humanitarian; and described their personal ideal of an engineer as humanitarian, smart, respectable, involved, and organized. This knowledge is the first step towards enabling construction educators to frame disciplinary content in ways that support inclusion of the construction student body and profession.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1763204 & 1763312. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
We thank the many students who took the time to answer our questions, and the many construction engineering educators around the nation who helped with the logistics for data collection.
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Published In
Construction Research Congress 2020: Safety, Workforce, and Education
Pages: 633 - 642
Editors: Mounir El Asmar, Ph.D., Arizona State University, David Grau, Ph.D., Arizona State University, and Pingbo Tang, Ph.D., Arizona State University
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8287-2
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© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Nov 9, 2020
Published in print: Nov 9, 2020
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