Navigating equity work in engineering: contradicting messages encountered by minority faculty

ABSTRACT

The lack of diversity in engineering and perpetuation of inequities through engineering designs have motivated the rise of new curricula centred on the integration of traditional technical content with social aspects of technology. However, the ‘revolutionizing’ of curricula has primarily been spearheaded by junior faculty, women and faculty of colour. This article uses an autoethnographic approach to explore the development of social justice-oriented curricula within engineering from the perspectives of junior women and faculty of colour. Drawing on feminist and critical race theory, we discuss how power dynamics within the school, university and engineering more broadly have shaped the development and teaching of justice-oriented engineering. Through the lens of our experiences, we show that, despite the support from some institutional allies and administrators, stereotypes, hegemonic norms and microaggressions can undermine efforts for social and structural change in engineering education, even as such changes are supported and promoted by the institution.

KEYWORDS:

• Intersectionality
• institutional change
• engineering education
• autoethnography
• engineering culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr. Diana A. Chen is an Assistant Professor in Integrated Engineering at the University of San Diego. She joined the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering in 2016. Her research interests are in areas of sustainable design, including biomimicry and adaptability in structural, city and regional applications. Additionally, her scholarship includes topics such as curriculum development, contextualization of fundamental sciences and integrating social justice into engineering education. She earned her MS and PhD in Civil Engineering from Clemson University, and her BS in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College.

Dr. Joel Alejandro (Alex) Mejia is an Assistant Professor in Integrated Engineering. His current research investigates the funds of knowledge of Latinx adolescents, and how they use these funds of knowledge to solve engineering problems in their communities. Dr. Mejia is particularly interested in how Latinx adolescents bring forth unique ways of knowing, doing and being that provide them with particular ways of framing, approaching and solving engineering problems. He is also interested in engineering and literacy education for equity, engineering literacies in K-16 settings, equity-oriented instructional strategies that support engineering activity, the use and application of critical theories in engineering education, and the development of critical consciousness in engineering through social justice. Dr. Mejia received his PhD in engineering education from Utah State University, MS from the University of Utah, and his BS from the University of Texas at El Paso. He is also a former Gates Millennium Scholar and CADRE Fellow.

Dr. Samantha Breslin is an Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen. Her research centres on the reproduction of norms and inequities relating to gender, expertise and neoliberalism in technology education and practice. Her scholarship also includes topics such as gender and human-computer interaction, research methodology and ethics in anthropology and relating to digital data and technologies, and meaning and identity in relation to traditional Irish and Newfoundland music. Dr. Breslin received her MA and PhD in anthropology from Memorial University of Newfoundland, and her BMath in computer science from the University of Waterloo.

ORCID

Diana A. Chen http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3616-1538

Joel Alejandro Mejia http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3908-9930

Samantha Breslin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4728-4085

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Division of Engineering Education and Centres, National Science Foundation [grant number 1519453].