Research on engineering culture often aims, either explicitly or implicitly, to understand why engineering in the U.S. remains largely white and largely male. However, while increasing diversity in engineering has been a major focus in the U.S. for decades, the percentages for women and people of color have stayed relatively stagnant. Recently, however, the COVID-19 pandemic caused rapid changes in education and exacerbated challenges around diversity and inclusion in engineering. It also provides a unique opportunity to investigate engineering culture during a time of crisis to examine possibilities for cultural change from a new lens. To that end, this study investigates three U.S. mechanical engineering student’s perspective on their department’s response to COVID-19 in order to understand the extent to which various dimensions of engineering culture [1] impacted the response. This study aims to understand how students’ reported experiences map onto the dimensions of engineering culture as well as to assess the fit of the theoretical framework and inform codebook development for a larger research study.
http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-8766-9548
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
[biography]
Jessica Deters is a PhD candidate at Virginia Tech in the Department of Engineering Education. She holds a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics and a minor in the McBride Honors Program in Public Affairs from the Colorado School of Mines.
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2202-6928
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
[biography]
Marie C. Paretti is a Professor of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech and a founding co-editor-in-chief of Studies in Engineering Education. She holds a B.S. in chemical engineering and an M.A. in English from Virginia Tech and Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is PI or co-PI on numerous NSF grants exploring communication, teamwork, design, professional identity, and inclusion in engineering. Drawing on theories of situated learning and identity development, her research explores examines the ways in which engineering education supports students’ professional development in a range of contexts, with a particular focus on the school to work transition.
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