Engineering Graduate Students' Descriptions of Their Researcher Role Identity

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session One
  In Roundtable Session: Academic Writing Difficulties and Motivation (Table 7)

Abstract

Graduate Engineering Identity is theorized to be constructed from researcher, scientist, and engineering identity domains. In this proposal, we examine engineering graduate student participants’ descriptions of their researcher identity through open-ended survey questions completed by 81 participants at a southeastern research university. Participants often associated several key practices with their research identity, and often linked these practices in the following cycle: Gaining knowledge to ask research questions, answering research questions through investigating, authoring papers to share gained knowledge with the world, then reading others’ publications to gain new knowledge. By studying engineering graduate student researcher identity, this research contributes to the development of an increasingly representative engineering workforce by understanding how to support the identity development of all graduate students.

Authors

• Anne M. McAlister, University of Virginia
  Presenting Author

• Sarah Lilly, University of Virginia
  Presenting Author