2025 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)

Beyond deficits: Developing an elicitation mechanism for engineering practitioners with ADHD to create autoethnographic counterstories

Presented at Track 1: Technical Session 3: Beyond deficits: Developing an elicitation mechanism for engineering practitioners with ADHD to create autoethnographic counterstories

In the last two decades, engineering education researchers have increasingly explored the traits of engineering students with ADHD (either formally or informally diagnosed), moving from deficit-based framings of students with ADHD to asset-based framings of the valuable characteristics individuals with ADHD bring to the engineering enterprise. However, while some investigations analyze the experiences of ADHD-having engineering students, few investigations center the narratives of ADHD-having engineering practitioners (faculty and students) to unravel how dominant discourses of disability and ADHD affect their engineering pathways. Further rendering those discourses invisible, disability is stigmatized, and open discussions of neurodivergence and disability are less prevalent, leading to an inability to understand how individuals with ADHD navigate engineering ecosystems. We have two main objectives in this paper: 1) critically analyze asset and deficit-based framings of ADHD and disability in engineering, and 2) create and disseminate qualitative elicitation questions to create counterstories from individuals with ADHD. This work forms part of a larger project to answer the following research question through the lens of crip theory: Can we reconceptualize ADHD in engineering beyond deficit frameworks through critical methods that uncover and question hegemonic discourses and the power those discourses have?

Authors

Dr. Hector Enrique Rodríguez-Simmonds http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4417-1859 Boston College [biography]

Héctor was born in Mexico and raised in South Florida. He's half Colombian and half Mexican; proud Mexilombian. Héctor E. Rodríguez-Simmonds is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Human-Centered Engineering at Boston College. Before receiving his Ph.D. in Engineering Education, he earned his master's degree in electrical and computer engineering. Héctor's research primarily investigates how students negotiate their visible and less visible identities as they form their professional identity, specifically at the intersection of their racial/ethnic, sexual orientation, gender, and engineering identities. Héctor’s research projects range from autoethnographic inquiries that investigate culturally informed collaborative qualitative research spaces, neurodivergence and disability in engineering, and examining the structural factors that impact student experiences in computer engineering courses. Héctor has taught various engineering courses and is invested in showing learners he cares about them and their future success. He creates a space where learners can feel safe to experiment, iterate, and try different problem-solving approaches while encouraging learners to be critical of their professional practice so they create effective, holistic solutions that work for a broader range of individuals.
Mx. Sage Maul Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE) [biography]

Sage Maul (he/they) is a fourth year PhD student in Purdue University's School of Engineering Education. Sage's research explores structural factors on student experiences for disabled student and in electrical and computer engineering courses. Sage graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering from Purdue and worked in industry for 5 years before starting graduate school. His experiences with accommodations in undergrad and getting diagnosed with ADHD as an adult inform their research work.
Lisa Xuan Li Purdue University at West Lafayette (COE)
Ms. Ruby J Barnett Boston College

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on February 9, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on February 11, 2025

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Advocacy and Policy
Broadening Participation in Engineering and Engineering Technology