Student Perceptions of Learning about Diversity and its Place in Engineering Classrooms in the United States

Engineering students must be prepared to function as professionals in increasingly diverse societies. However, addressing diversity is primarily relegated to efforts focused on underrepresented groups, rather than being meaningfully integrated into engineering education curricula. The purpose of this study is to advance understanding of how students in the United States (U.S.) perceive the relationship between learning about diversity and engineering classrooms. Given the strong focus on technical skills in U.S. engineering and the role that student attitudes and resistance play in educational reform, educators may need to carefully integrate such topics. We used an exploratory, qualitative research design to investigate engineering students' perceptions of and task values for engaging with learning tasks associated with diversity-focused education. We interviewed 41 students, both undergraduate and graduate, from a university in the U.S. using Eccles' expectancy value model to inform data collection and analysis. When discussing diversity-focused education in engineering, students: (1) focused on issues of culture related to diversity and engineering; (2) recognized challenges associated with learning and teaching; and (3) varied in the nature of and degree to which they perceived value for such content. If educators are strategic, there are opportunities to more effectively incorporate topics and address issues related to diversity in engineering courses. In addition to clearly demonstrating the value of diversity, educators will also need to address uncertainty regarding the structure of such a task as it may increase the likelihood of disengagement.