2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This full Women in Engineering Division paper will present the stories of two academics of color in engineering departments, self-identified as a Black woman and Latina, who for the past couple of years have been navigating the diagnosis, treatment, and management of their children's specific learning difficulties (SLD). This qualitative story exchange will present itself as a conversation between two colleagues and friends who have struggled with navigating the diagnosis and interventions of SLDs for their children. The conversation will discuss the dichotomy between being an engineering educator who has practical and research expertise in teaching and learning and the discourses they have experienced when navigating the educational systems for their children. Intertwined within the story, the academic moms will discuss layers of systemic oppression and inequalities that they have experienced in the process of advocating for their children and witnessing what their own children face amid the intersectional identities they carry. The paper will conclude with a call to action for engineering education to consider the unique challenges academic women engineering faculty and other gender identities who have parental responsibilities face at the intersection of race, ethnicity, mental health, and SLDs. Implications for improving the working conditions of these academic faculty and parents of color in engineering will be discussed.