2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Audio Narratives as a Way of Voicing Marginalized Student Experience

Presented at Innovating Inclusivity: Rethinking Access and Empowerment in STEM Education

Audio Narratives as a Way of Voicing Marginalized Student Experience

Background:
Marginalization of minoritized students in undergraduate engineering education is an important equity issue created by the racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other systemic discrimination in the system. Qualitative research to understand and listen to student voices has been an important tool for documenting marginalization, but research solely to create conference and journal publications could be re-traumatizing and limited in its ability to help students or change the system. In prior work, we have argued that qualitative research should progress beyond simply documenting marginalization, to try new methods to actually change faculty perspectives.

Purpose:
This arts-based research paper presents an innovative audio-based project methodology to center the voices of students experiencing marginalization.

Our work connects to multiple ECSJ 2023 Pillars: 1) our focus on innovation towards impact through our research is a form of methodological activism and a potentially decolonizing (broadly speaking) methodological practice; 2) the audio narratives of individual students can provide insight into the marginalizing systems through the lens of their experience (Pawley, 2013); and 3) the audio narratives are meant to provide resources towards equitable faculty practice.

Format of Presentation:
Our presentation will include a paper and/or web-based presentation of the audio narratives. The existing narratives are prepared on YouTube, approximately 10 minutes long for each of 10 student narratives, and include subtitles for accessibility. Our proposed presentation at ASEE will be an interactive poster presentation that incorporates the audio narratives. We will have QR codes for ASEE session participants to interact with the audio narratives and will present our analysis of how these student narratives inform faculty practice and understandings of systemic marginalization.

Implications: Our primary implications will be for engineering education researchers of marginalization, to potentially incorporate our methodology to help create a more impactful and engaged research agenda.

Authors

Dr. Stephen Secules http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3149-2306 Florida International University [biography]

Stephen is an Assistant Professor Engineering and Computing Education at Florida International University. He has a prior academic and professional background in engineering, having worked professionally as an acoustical engineer. He has taught a number of courses on design, sociotechnical contexts, education, and learning. He conducts research on equity and culture in engineering education and supports undergraduate and graduate student researchers through the Equity Research Group.
Dr. Cassandra McCall http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-0240-432X Utah State University [biography]

Dr. Cassandra McCall is an Assistant Professor in the Engineering Education Department at Utah State University (USU). Her research focuses on the intersections of disability, identity formation, and culture and uses anti-ableist approaches to enhance universal access for students with disabilities in STEM, particularly in engineering. At USU, she serves as the Co-Director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Transition Services. In 2024, Dr. McCall received a National Science Foundation CAREER grant to identify systemic opportunities for increasing the participation of people with disabilities in engineering. Her award-winning publications have been recognized by leading engineering education research journals at both national and international levels. Dr. McCall has led several workshops promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities and other minoritized groups in STEM. She holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in civil engineering with a structural engineering emphasis.
Maimuna Begum Kali http://orcid.org/https://0000-0003-1770-7363 Florida International University [biography]

Maimuna Begum Kali is a Ph.D. candidate in the Engineering and Computing Education program at the School of Universal Computing, Construction, and Engineering Education (SUCCEED) at Florida International University (FIU). She earned her B.Sc. in Computer Science and Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). Kali's research interests center on exploring the experiences of marginalized engineering students, with a particular focus on their hidden identity, mental health, and wellbeing. Her work aims to enhance inclusivity and diversity in engineering education, contributing to the larger body of research in the field.
Gabriel Van Dyke Utah State University [biography]

Gabriel Van Dyke is a Graduate Student and Research Assistant in the Engineering Education Department at Utah State University. His current research interests are engineering culture and applying cognitive load theory in the engineering classroom. He is currently working on an NSF project attempting to improve dissemination of student narratives using innovative audio approaches. Gabe has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Utah State University (USU).
Vanessa Tran Utah State University [biography]

Vanessa Tran is a Ph.D. candidate in Engineering Education at Utah State University (USU). She earned a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Architecture (UAH) and a Master's in Global Production Engineering and Management from the Vietnamese-German University (VGU) in Vietnam. Her research interest lies in enhancing the well-being of engineering students and educators. She is currently working on an NSF-funded project promoting student narratives through audio-based methods.

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