The Intersection of Gender and Race: Exploring Chemical Engineering Students’ Attitudes

Authors

  • Allison Godwin Purdue University ∙ West Lafayette, IN 47907
  • Dina Verdín Purdue University ∙ West Lafayette, IN 47907
  • Adam Kirn University of Nevada, Reno ∙ Reno, NV 89557
  • Derrick Satterfield University of Nevada, Reno ∙ Reno, NV 89557

Keywords:

student beliefs, diversity and inclusion, intersection of gender and race/ethnicity

Abstract

 

 We surveyed 342 first-year engineering students at four U.S. institutions interested in a chemical engineering career about their feelings of belonging in engineering, motivation, and STEM identities. We compared these students by both gender and race/ethnicity on these attitudinal factors. We found several significant differences in belongingness, motivation, and physics and engineering identities for both majority and minority women from their peers. We also found significantly higher mathematics identity for majority men than their peers. Our results provide more nuanced implications for how to support diverse students in chemical engineering classrooms.

Author Biographies

Allison Godwin, Purdue University ∙ West Lafayette, IN 47907

 

 Allison Godwin, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her research focuses what factors influence diverse students to choose engineering and stay in engineering through their careers and how different experiences within the practice and culture of engineering foster or hinder belongingness and identity development. Dr. Godwin graduated from Clemson University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Engineering and Science Education. Her research earned her a National Science Foundation CAREER Award focused on characterizing latent diversity, which includes diverse attitudes, mindsets, and approaches to learning, to understand engineering students’ identity development.

Dina Verdín, Purdue University ∙ West Lafayette, IN 47907

 

 Dina Verdín is a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education and M.S. student in Industrial Engineering at Purdue University. She completed her B.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at San José State University. Dina is a 2016 recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship. Her research interest focuses on changing the deficit base perspective of first-generation college students by providing asset-based approaches to understanding the population. Dina is interested in understanding how first-generation college students author their identities as engineers and negotiate their multiple identities in the current culture of engineering.

Adam Kirn, University of Nevada, Reno ∙ Reno, NV 89557

 

 Adam Kirn is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at the University of Nevada, Reno. His research focuses on the interactions between engineering cultures, student motivation, and learning experiences. His projects involve the study of student perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes towards becoming engineers, their problem-solving processes, and cultural fit. His education includes a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, an M.S. in Bioengineering and Ph.D. in Engineering and Science Education from Clemson University.

Derrick Satterfield, University of Nevada, Reno ∙ Reno, NV 89557

 

 Derrick Satterfield is a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education and Chemical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. He graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno in May 2017, and plans to pursue a career in academia in the future. His research interests are in student attrition rates within academia, and the factors that influence decision making on persistence.

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Published

2018-03-28

Issue

Vol. 52 No. 2 (2018): Spring 2018

Section

Manuscripts