2023 Collaborative Network for Computing and Engineering Diversity (CoNECD)

Keywords: Undergraduate; Race/Ethnicity; Engineering; AAPI; Asian American

Scholars and policymakers in engineering education have been challenged by how to appropriately conceptualize and engage Asian Americans in their research and intervention programs due to the extensive diversity of identities and ethnicities encompassed under the term “Asian American.” While East Asians are “overrepresented” in engineering, and their experiences are not well presented in considerable diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, other subgroups, such as Southeast Asian Americans, are substantially underserved in engineering education. Limited research has been directed to explore the interactions between their ethnic identities and the engineering identity among Asian American students. In this paper, we conduct a scoping review of the current literature in engineering education to explore the landscape of Asian American students’ experience in engineering. This review addresses two research questions: (1) What are the motivations of these studies in exploring Asian American engineering students’ experiences? (2) What are the gaps in the existing literature on Asian American students’ experience in engineering education? It also discusses how future researchers can be more inclusive of all Asian American identities in their research and how educators can bring these aspects into matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Such an exploratory study aims to highlight that Asian American students are rendered invisible or underserved in relation to resources and visibility by engineering education researchers and the institutions meant to support and guide these students, despite that some of these students are perceived as “overrepresented” explicitly or implicitly in engineering education. More fundamentally, we hope our work can help DEI research in engineering education further expand the scope of its theoretical and methodological foundations.