Psychological journeys of engineering identity from school to the workplace: How students become engineers among other forms of self

James L Huff, Purdue University

Abstract

Twenty-first century engineers face incredible challenges and opportunities, many of which are socially complex, transcending the traditional "technical" boundaries of engineering. The technology produced by engineers must not only function as predicted by mathematical and theoretical models but must also operate beneficially and seamlessly in complex social contexts. In this sense, engineers must embody an integrated social and technical – or sociotechnical – identity rather than a dualistic social/technical one. A growing body of scholarship has discussed how dominant cultures of engineering shape students' and professionals' understandings of social and technical dimensions of their work. Further, engineering education research has advanced understanding of how engineering identity is formed by external, structural forces. Yet, from a psychological perspective, we know little about how engineering students come to perceive and embody their identities as engineers, especially in relation to social and technical dimensions of these identities. Thus, I organized this study around the following research questions: RQ0: How do students psychologically experience identity trajectories of becoming engineers? RQ1: How do students perceive the social and technical features of engineering identity? RQ2: How do students internally experience their identities as engineers, particularly with regard to social and technical dimensions of these identities? RQ3: How do social and technical perceptions of their engineering identity develop and change in the course of the engineering curriculum or in the transition to the workplace? I investigated these questions using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to generate a robust, nuanced understanding of seven participants' journey from being engineering students to being full-time engineers. The data sources for the investigation were semi-structured interviews. I interviewed participants from electrical, mechanical and civil engineering disciplines one month before they graduated and then a second time after they were approximately 2-3 months into their respective careers. Additionally, I analyzed participants in two separate male and female groups, in order to establish a baseline for comparing the findings with respect to gender. The objectives of this investigation, then, are to: (1) develop a clear understanding of how engineering students develop their social and technical way of being engineers undergraduate education, (2) generate a developmental theory regarding how students relate ways of enacting engineering in the technical and social domains, and (3) identify what experiences, particularly from engineering coursework or in the engineering workplace, shape their social and technical perceptions of being engineers. This particular study is part of a larger investigation that examines how students come to view social and technical perceptions of their engineering identities throughout the entire engineering curriculum and into the workplace. The findings of the investigation highlight the complexity of becoming both male and female engineers, specifically by demonstrating a somewhat contradictory relationship between what participants perceived to be engineering and how they actually embodied an engineering-self. They further demonstrate the manifold ways that participants realized and prioritized identities outside of engineering and how these multiple selves interacted in ways that affected their engineering identities. Additionally, findings for both male and female groups suggest that some psychological patterns might be related to gender. In sum, the findings depict a complex picture of engineering-students-turned-engineers as whole persons. By focusing on how engineering identity development is embodied, the findings generate multiple theoretical insights that bear relevance for engineering education research and provocative implications that bear significance for engineering educators, students, and employers.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Oakes, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Educational sociology|Social psychology|Engineering|Occupational psychology|Cognitive psychology

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