2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Work in Progress: Developing Methods from Feminist Standpoint Perspectives to Analyze a Panel Discussion and Promote Enduring Impact

Presented at Work-in-Progress Session: Emergent Methods for Engineering Education Research

This is a Work in Progress (WIP) method paper submission.

Panel discussions have been widely used to provide diverse perspectives on pressing topics within academic and non-academic communities. Individuals participating in panels are usually brought together to express a wide range of views related to the topics chosen and to combine ideas, studies, and lived experiences. We see an opportunity to extend panel discussions to have enduring impact and to broadly disseminate the discourse created during the sessions. The incorporation of panel discussions as a research endeavor has the potential to broaden researchers' ways of knowing, yet knowledge transfer from panel conversations to peer-reviewed publications has to this point been minimal.

This paper highlights methods for analyzing panel discussions, discourse content, and panelist reflection to produce research results, new insights, and field recommendations. We explore the use of an autoethnographic, collaborative inquiry approach and qualitative coding of the panel transcript as effective methods for analyzing panel discussions and capturing the information and ideas presented in peer-reviewed publications. We pursue this endeavor through an explicit standpoint of feminist epistemology, recognizing that our varying positionalities impact our methodological approaches and our analyses of these methodologies. As women in STEM, we leverage two of the four dimensions of Black Feminist Standpoint Theory (BFT): (1) lived experiences of Black women viewed as a criterion of meaning and (2) the use of dialogue to access knowledge claims. We expand these dimensions to all women by leveraging feminist theory, which emerged from BFT.

We find the method presented especially impactful for topics related to broadening participation in engineering. The typical engineer’s identity in the United States has changed over time, particularly regarding gender, race, and ethnicity; but marginalized groups are still vastly underrepresented and their perspectives remain unvalidated within engineering and engineering education spaces. This paper is based on a panel of six early career women engineers in the academy. We illustrate how we utilized the method presented to explore our own personal and research experiences and provide our cultural definition of the state of women in engineering that was produced during our panel discussion. The method presented is a means for each engineer to contribute their distinct but overlapping personal, professional, and research experiences to create one unified message.

Together, we believe our experiences revealed unique insights worth capturing, and this paper will show transparency in our process - a process that may be replicable by participants on other panels. We hope to capture this method to help other minoritized or marginalized groups amplify their voices within the engineering and engineering education fields, furthering the calls for systemic change.

Authors

Dr. Renee M. Desing http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4052-2423 Oregon State University [biography]

Dr. Renee Desing is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington. Her research interests include diversity, equity, and inclusion in the engineering classrooms and workplaces. Dr. Desing graduated from Ohio State with her Ph.D. in Engineering Education, and also holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Susan Sajadi Virginia Tech [biography]

Susan Sajadi is an assistant professor at Virginia Tech in the department of engineering education. She has a BS and MS in Biomedical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Engineering Education Systems and Design from Arizona State University. Prior, she worked as an engineer in the medical device industry.
Dr. Christina Anlynette Alston http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3099-3528 University of Colorado Boulder [biography]

Christina Alston, Ph.D., is an accomplished educator and researcher dedicated to promoting equitable environments in STEM education. With a Ph.D. from the University of Houston, her research focused on the racialized experiences of Black females who left K-12 science teaching. As the former Associate Director for Equitable Research, Evaluation, and Grant Development at Rice University's Office of STEM Engagement, she broadened the mission of K-12 programs to foster asset-based equitable environments for underserved populations. Dr. Alston leads NSF-funded projects and
served as the Pre-College Delegate for the Commission for Diversity Equity & Inclusion at ASEE, where she educated K-12 teachers on inclusive practices. Currently, she is the incoming Colorado Diversity Initiative Director, overseeing programs promoting diversity in STEM at CU Boulder, empowering students and researchers from all backgrounds. Dr. Alston's educational background and dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion create a critical consciousness for a sustainable and prosperous future in STEM.
Stephanie A Damas http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-5397-7577 Clemson University [biography]

Stephanie Ashley Damas is currently a graduate student at Clemson University studying to get her Ph.D. in Engineering and Science Education. Her area of interest is Diversity and Inclusion in Engineering. She holds a bachelorâ€™s degree in electrical engi
Gabriella Torres
Dr. Corin L. Bowen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0910-8902 California State University, Los Angeles [biography]

Corin (Corey) Bowen is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Education, housed in the Department of Civil Engineering at California State University - Los Angeles. Her engineering education research focuses on structural oppression in engineering systems, organizing for equitable change, and developing an agenda of Engineering for the Common Good. She teaches structural mechanics and sociotechnical topics in engineering education and practice. Corey conferred her Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor in April 2021; her thesis included both technical and educational research. She also holds an M.S.E. in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor and a B.S.E. in civil engineering from Case Western Reserve University, both in the areas of structural engineering and solid mechanics.

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