This phenomenological study investigates the experiences of eight women from Kuwait and Oman who, in 2014, started a four-year Bachelor of Engineering program together at a large public institution of higher education in Ireland. Of the eight, seven were still enrolled in 2018 and were in their fourth year studying at the university-level. Although one participant had returned to her home country to complete a degree in teaching English, the seven others were on-track to earn degrees in engineering. Over the course of four years we have conducted 20 interviews with these eight students. In this paper we report results and findings related to the first 13 of these interviews, conducted first- through third-year.
As education researchers, we aim to understand the essence of the experience these women have had studying engineering. We want to understand what it is like to study engineering in Ireland as female from the Middle East. What aspects of the experience are shared across all the Middle Eastern women in the course? What specific challenges, barriers, sources of inspiration and support do these women experience? Which behaviors of friends, teammates, and teachers help these students in learning, and which hinder them?
Prof. Shannon Chance is a licensed architect with 18 years of experience teaching three major subjects: architecture (at Virginia Tech and Hampton University, where she was Professor of Architecture), education (at William and Mary University), and engineering (at Dublin Institute of Technology in Ireland where she serves as Lecturer in the School of Multidisciplinary Technologies). Alongside teaching, Shannon earned a PhD in higher education in 2010 and developed a focus on engineering education research through a Fulbright Fellowship and two Marie Skłodowska-Curie research fellowships. She is now completing the second of these, working at University College London's Centre for Engineering Education.
Bill Williams originally trained as a chemist at the National University of Ireland and went on to work in education in Ireland, UK, Eritrea, Kenya, Mozambique and Portugal.
He is Emeritus Professor at the Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Portugal and and is a member of the CEG-IST, Universidade de Lisboa research centre.
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