Identity theorists contend that each person possesses their own set of personal traits or identity that varies as they move from one context to another. Based on the work of Gee, primarily the affinity identity category of his theory, we posit that students develop identities within their discipline from the earliest days of their choice of what to study and where to study. Data were collected from 65 first-year Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Biochemistry students at a large public rural-based research and engineering intensive university and an urban public research institution with a more diverse student intake based on its geographical location. The disciplines were chosen to highlight the distinctive features of engineering formation and two closely related science programs at each university. From our preliminary analysis of the first-year data, we show how students’ choice what to study relates to their emerging identity.
Nicole is an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Prior to joining VT, Dr. Pitterson was a postdoctoral scholar at Oregon State University. She holds a PhD in Engineering Education from Purdue University and other degrees in Manufacturing Engineering from Western Illinois University and a B.Sc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Technology, Jamaica. Her research interest is eliciting conceptual understanding of introductory engineering concepts using active learning strategies.
Ashish Agrawal is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cape Town. He received his PhD in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech. Prior to that, he completed his MS from Virginia Tech and B-Tech from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, both in Electrical Engineering. His research interests include sociology of education, experiences of faculty and students in engineering, and critical and inclusive pedagogies.
Jennifer Case is Head and Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. She holds an honorary position at the University of Cape Town. Her research on the student experience of learning, focusing mainly on science and engineering education, has been published across a range of journal articles in higher education and her recent book, Researching student learning in higher education: A social realist approach published in 2013 by Routledge. She holds an academic development post in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCT, and teaches in the undergraduate programme there. She is a coordinating editor for the international journal Higher Education and a co-editor for the Routledge/SRHE series Research into Higher Education.
I am a Ph.D. candidate in educational research and evaluation. I have expertise in research methodology, with a focus on psychometrics, narrowing achievement gaps, and bias. I use qualitative and quantitative methods to understand social science phenomena.
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