Perceptions of engineering from female secondary college students in regional Victoria - Ron Choi ENG 574

Darby, Linda, S. Hall, K. Dowling, B. Kentish. "Perceptions of engineering from female secondary college students in regional Victoria." 14th Annual AAEE Conference. Melbourne: Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE), 2003. 507-516.

In this conference article, the authors present preliminary findings from surveys and focus groups which revealed female secondary students’ (aged 14-15) perceptions of engineering.  The purpose of the qualitative study was to reveal barriers to entry for female students, and ultimately provide insight into how to overcome them.   The study was conducted as a series of small, 2-3 person focus groups in the Victoria area.  Participants were chosen based on a six-level sampling strategy, to select those who were inclined towards careers in maths and science, and for whom engineering could easily be a career choice.  As part of the focus group, the participants were asked to draw a picture depicting an engineer doing what engineers do.

The results suggested that these female students had a lack of knowledge of engineers and engineering jobs and activities, stemming from a lack of visible engineering role models and limited education on engineering as a career.  This resulted in an inability for the participants to connect their own interests with being an engineer.  It also created a reliance on society’s image of engineering to form their opinions, and engineering was perceived to be a male dominated industry, and therefore unattractive to the women.  These factors ultimately result in a low interest in the perceived image of engineers. 

I found this article to have phenomenological validity, as it rung true regarding what conventional wisdom would tell us about engineering and female perceptions towards engineers.  This article does not focus on my original research topic, relating to communication skills, but it did spark and idea/question in my mind, as to whether or not the lack of diversity in engineering is a cause or effect of the deficiencies in engineers’ communication skills.  If engineering programs in North America had more equal percentages of men and women in them, and if they had a broader ethnic landscape, would the social and communication skills of the students be improved?