The Development of Critical Engineering Agency, Identity, and the Impact on Engineering Career Choices

作者：Allison Godwin, Geoff Potvin, Zahra Hazari · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.18260/1-2--22569 · 被引用次数：50 · 研究领域：Career Development and Diversity、Engineering Education and Curriculum Development、Higher Education and Employability

Abstract The Development of Critical Engineering Agency, Identity, and the Impact on Engineering Career ChoicesHigh school students do not typically get full exposure to science practice, let alone engineeringpractice, so the choice of an engineering discipline upon entrance to college is often a partly informeddecision. Additionally, the coursework to prepare for various physical science careers is oftenundifferentiated until well into college. A students' self-ascribed identity coupled with anunderstanding of their career choices as a path to fulfilling their goals may be one way to understandthe choice of engineering.This paper explores the agency and identity of engineering students through the lens of criticalengineering agency as a first step in the development of an affective model for the choice ofengineering in college. Distributed in the fall semester of 2011, the nationally-representativeSustainability and Gender in Engineering (SaGE) survey was completed by 6772 college students (55%female) across the United States who were enrolled in first-year English courses. The topics includedin this survey covered students' experiences in their last high school science classes, beliefs aboutengineering and sustainability, as well as demographics and students' prior academic performance.Critical engineering agency as a framework leverages students' understanding of engineering processes,the skills and modes of inquiry associated with engineering content, self-identification ...