Emergence of an Engineering Identity in Elementary Students

• In Event: Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Situated Discourse Processes: Developing Participation and Identity

Abstract

This study examines the emergence of engineering identity among elementary school students. Engineering has only recently been added to state and national standards. This study draws from an extensive video record of over 96 engineering units over the course of four years to identify the ways that engaging in engineering practices helps children to build confidence in their engineering abilities and affiliation with the discipline. Across two, four-lesson engineering units (designing parachutes and designing a Tarpul bridge) a sociolinguistic perspective is taken to show how engagement in engineering builds student identity. Because engineering is a new discipline in most classrooms, it provides a unique opportunity to examine how disciplinary affinity can be developed through purposeful activity and metadiscourse about participation.

Authors

• Gregory J. Kelly, The Pennsylvania State University

• Christine M. Cunningham, Museum of Science, Boston

• Amy Rene Ricketts, The Pennsylvania State University