2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The undergraduate engineering environment is a location of socialization that shapes engineering students via institutional structures and cultures. Studying perceptions of culture is one way to better understand how the environment socializes its inhabitants. In this work-in-progress paper, we detail our process for surfacing undergraduate women of color’s perceptions of engineering culture. We explain how we developed two-think aloud activities, as part of a phenomenographic dissertation, to better understand how undergraduate engineering students perceive and experience engineering culture via its values and norms. Preliminary findings indicate that our think-aloud activities were effective at surfacing the values students perceive in undergraduate engineering (e.g., achievement, determination, cooperation, etc.), as well as the extent to which dominant norms (i.e.., depoliticization, technical social dualism, meritocracy, individualism, competition, masculinity, and whiteness) are present. Our work can inform future research using phenomenography interview methods and research concerned with surfacing perceptions of culture.