2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Work in Progress: A Collaborative Reflection Exploring the Teaching Motivation and Identity Development for International Graduate Students in Engineering

Presented at Student Division Technical Session 3: Student Experiences and Support

This work in progress paper uses collaborative reflection to begin exploring the contextual factors that influence the teaching motivation and identity of international engineering doctoral students. In this paper, the first two authors are international doctoral students who reflect on their first formal teaching experiences and their journey toward developing interests in engineering education careers. Sruthi (First Author) explores her experience as an international student from India teaching in the United States, while Anyerson (Second Author) examines his teaching experience in his home country of Colombia. Our review of the literature on the experiences of international graduate students found that prior work has primarily focused on understanding their sense of belonging and acclimation to higher education settings in the United States. And yet, their teaching motivation and identity as international graduate students have been underexplored. Expanding on existing work that examines intrinsic factors of motivation (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) for graduate teaching assistants in engineering, we analyzed written reflections and discussions about our personal experiences to begin uncovering the extent in which our cultural identities play a role in our self-determination to pursue careers in engineering education. The outcomes of this paper will lead to insights informing a future paper examining how international graduate students navigate hidden curriculum of teaching environments in the United States. Broadly, the goal of this work is to identify contextual factors that motivate international graduate students to pursue teaching in engineering, while also fostering their retention and engagement in the field.

Authors

Sruthi Dasika http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2038-0285 Purdue University [biography]

Sruthi is a Ph.D. candidate in Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University, focusing her research on developing cost-effective drinking water test methods for underserved communities in the developing world. She earned an M.S. in Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue and a B.E. in Civil Engineering from Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore. Sruthi has accrued extensive graduate teaching and supervising experience, and holds a certificate for Foundations in College Teaching from Purdue's Center for Instructional Excellence, and a Teaching and Learning in Engineering Graduate Certificate from the School of Engineering Education. Her commitment to improving undergraduate STEM teaching experiences drives her academic and professional pursuits.
Anyerson Cuervo Purdue University [biography]

Anyerson Cuervo, from Bogota, Colombia, is a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education at Purdue University. With a background in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in materials science from the National University of Colombia, he faced workplace challenges in his engineering roles in Colombian companies. He has taught materials science and technical drawing courses at Colombian universities for four years. His current research interests involve teaching identity development of graduate and undergraduate students, and additional focuses are the improvement of teaching practices and the development and assessment of teaching skills at the graduate level.
Amena Shermadou Purdue University [biography]

Amena Shermadou is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. Her research agenda focuses on exploring hidden curriculum through the lens of Muslim experiences in engineering. Prior to her current role at Ohio State, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue. Amena earned her PhD in Engineering Education at The Ohio State University and received her B.S. and M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Wright State University.

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