Poster presentation at Practical Engineering Education PEE24

Today (Tuesday 2 July 2024) I am presenting a poster based on my research at the Practical Engineering Education conference at the University of Sheffield.

If you’re reading this because you just scanned the QR code on my poster, welcome! If you are interested in your institution taking part in recruitment for my study, please fill out this short form and I will be in touch asap.

You can find out more about my research on my About the research page, about me on my About me page, or see my previous publications here: My publications. The extended abstract for the poster I am presenting today can be viewed in the PEE conference booklet, and is also reproduced below.

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Information experiences of female engineering students: A phenomenological study

ABSTRACT

The aim of this PhD study is to explore information experiences within the lifeworlds of female engineering undergraduates. This research is rooted in the discipline of information literacy, a sub-field of library and information science (LIS), characterised by applied research that aims to improve learners’ experience. It will also draw from the evidence base of engineering education, as well as my own professional practice as an engineering librarian. It is hoped that developing a better understanding of women’s information experiences will help inform the practical support offered by both librarians and by engineering educators.

The lifeworld is defined in phenomenology as “the concrete and lived, but often disregarded, existence in the world” [1, p. 35]. Information experience is a concept from LIS, which examines “a person’s in-the-moment engagement with information” [2, p. 9]. It is often seen as an umbrella concept linking the conceptual field of information behaviour, defined as “how we act towards information, how we seek or discover it, how we use it, how we exchange it with others, how we may choose to ignore it, and, by extension, how we learn from and act upon it” [3, p. 14]; and the applied practice of information literacy, defined as “the adoption of appropriate information behaviour to obtain, through whatever channel or medium, information well fitted to information needs” [4, p. 336]. In my professional role as a librarian, I teach information literacy to engineering students at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Engineering education has been described as structurally white and male, which may disadvantage students of colour and female students [5]. In the UK, women make up 20% of undergraduate engineering and technology students [6], so female engineering undergraduates are usually in the minority in their courses. Being in a numerical minority of any kind may involve negative experiences, and this is a greater effect when the numerical minority is also in a position of less societal power: for example ethnic minorities in predominantly white spaces, or women in predominantly male spaces [7]. Negative experiences in a learning environment, such as being assumed to be less capable than their male peers based on gender stereotypes [8], can hinder women’s academic achievement and contribute to women leaving engineering [9].

Information experience is an aspect of students’ overall learning experience, as learners come to an understanding of their disciplinary knowledge through their use of information [10]. Just as learning and problem solving are both known to have emotional components [11, 12], prior research in LIS has found that emotions and affect are important in the process of information seeking and use: see for example Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process model, or Wilson’s model of general information behaviour [13, 14]. Therefore an assumption behind this study is that the information experiences of female engineering undergraduates will interact with and be mediated by their broader experiences in the engineering classroom.

Although some LIS research has examined engineering students [e.g. 15, 16, 17], and some has explored women’s information experiences [e.g. 18, 19, 20], very little has examined the intersection between the two. This research aims to fill this gap in the research.

The study, which aims to begin data collection in October 2024, will explore the following research questions:

1. How does the lived experience of being a woman in an undergraduate engineering classroom shape the information behaviour of women students?
2. How does the gendered learning environment of an engineering classroom interact with women’s information literacy development?
3. What are the aims and motivations of female engineering students when engaging with information?
4. What role does affect play in women engineering students’ information experiences?
5. Is personal epistemology, specifically Women’s Ways of Knowing [21], a useful lens through which to examine women engineering students’ information experiences?

To explore these questions, the study will take a qualitative, phenomenological approach. Female engineering undergraduates will be recruited from up to four universities of varying size, type, and demographics. Participants will be asked to keep a diary recording their information experiences over 2-4 weeks. Following this diary-keeping period, participants will be invited to participate in semi-structured interviews, using the diary narratives as a starting point for discussion.

It is anticipated that this research will provide a unique contribution to knowledge by taking a qualitative approach to exploring information experience holistically, examining women’s experiences in depth and within the context of engineering education.

REFERENCES       

1. Dahlberg K, Dahlberg H, Nystrom M. Reflective lifeworld research. 2nd ed. Sweden: Studentlitteratur; 2008.
2. Gorichanaz T. Information experience in theory and design. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited; 2020.
3. Wilson TD. Exploring information behaviour: an introduction. Sheffield: University of Sheffield; 2020.
4. Johnston B, Webber S. Information literacy in higher education: A review and case study. Studies in Higher Education. 2003;28(3):335-52. doi:10.1080/03075070309295
5. Pawley AL. Learning from small numbers: Studying ruling relations that gender and race the structure of U.S. engineering education. Journal of Engineering Education. 2019;108(1):13–31. doi:10.1002/jee.20247
6. Higher Education Statistics Authority. What do HE students study? 2023 [Available from: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/what-study.
7. Yoder JD. Rethinking tokenism: looking beyond numbers. Gender and Society. 1991;5(2):178-92.
8. Thomas KA, Kirn A, Cross KJ. “Are you sure you know what you’re talking about?”: Epistemic injustice exposed by stereotype threat in engineering.  ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition; Jun 25-28; Baltimore, Maryland: American Society for Engineering Education; 2023.
9. Beasley MA, Fischer MJ. Why they leave: The impact of stereotype threat on the attrition of women and minorities from science, math and engineering majors. Social Psychology of Education. 2012;15(4):427-48. doi:10.1007/s11218-012-9185-3
10. Bruce C. Informed Learning. Chicago, IL: Association of College & Research Libraries; 2008.
11. Quinlan KM. How emotion matters in four key relationships in teaching and learning in higher education. College Teaching. 2016;64(3):101-11. doi:10.1080/87567555.2015.1088818
12. Swenson J, Treadway E, Beranger K. Engineering students’ epistemic affect and meta‐affect in solving ill‐defined problems. Journal of Engineering Education. 2024. doi:10.1002/jee.20579
13. Kuhlthau CC. Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process. In: Fisher KE, Erdelez S, McKechnie L, editors. Theories of information behavior: Information Today; 2005. p. 230-4.
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15. Mercer K, Weaver K, Stables-Kennedy A. Understanding undergraduate engineering student information access and needs: Results from a scoping review.  ASEE Annual Conference; Jun 15-19; Tampa, FL: American Society for Engineering Education; 2019.
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17. Madden AD, Webber S, Ford N, Crowder M. The relationship between students’ subject preferences and their information behaviour. Journal of Documentation. 2018;74(4):692-721. doi:10.1108/jd-07-2017-0097
18. Urquhart C, Yeoman A. Information behaviour of women: Theoretical perspectives on gender. Journal of Documentation. 2010;66(1):113-39. doi:10.1108/00220411011016399
19. Pinto M, Sales D, Fernández-Pascual R. Gender perspective on information literacy: An interdisciplinary and multidimensional analysis within higher education settings. Library & Information Science Research. 2019;41(4):1-12. doi:10.1016/j.lisr.2019.100979
20. Steinerová J, Susol J. Users’ information behaviour – a gender perspective. Information Research. 2007;12(3).
21. Belenky MF, Clinchy BM, Goldberger NR, Tarule JM. Women’s ways of knowing: The development of self, voice, and mind. 10th anniversary ed. New York: Basic Books; 1997 c.1986.