2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Abstract
Previous quantitative research indicates that engineering students have “high rates of mental health struggles” (Danowitz and Beddoes, 2018, 2020, 2022a; Jensen and Cross, 2021; quoted in Beddoes and Danowitz, 2022b). However, until recently, research had not provided significant insight into why. Building on Seron and colleagues’ research on how professional socialization affects women in engineering (2016; 2018), the three participants in this study explored their own experience of socialization into the culture of engineering during their education. This study used a culturally responsive and creative inquiry framework and qualitative research methods of conversational interviews, journals, and student-generated creative content, from which emerged the lived-experience narratives of female undergraduate STEM students with multiple underrepresented identities. Findings of this study show that underrepresented students exert hidden efforts that the current engineering meritocracy does not know of, value, account for, or understand. This culture manifests itself as a lack of time and flexibility to rest and maintain control over one’s life and wellbeing. From the perspective of students with embodied differences, like physical and learning disabilities, this conception of rigor dehumanizes and removes their dignity, which can exacerbate mental health issues that many neurodivergent students already struggle with. Importantly, the participants’ narratives show how they actively resisted the culture and developed practices of self-care.