Paper 5: Using Art to Reflect and Reimagine Undergraduate Engineering Education

• In Event: Reimagining Researcher-Participant Relations in Engineering and Computing Education

Abstract

Purpose
Who is an engineer? What is undergraduate engineering education like? Looking to common wisdom (e.g., search engines, media narratives) can narrow the possibilities by drawing on existing cultural presumptions. We learn engineers are technical problem solvers not social workers or activists (Cech, 2014). That undergraduate engineering is competitive (Author, 2019), marginalizing those who are not nerdy or bro-y men (Carrigan 2024; Tonso, 1999).
In this paper, we position art-based research as a tool for imagining futuristic possibilities for engineering. We ask,
How can arts-based research help reflect and reimagine the landscape of engineering education towards more just manifestations?
Theoretical Perspective
We draw on Keifer-Boyd's (2011) five categories of social-justice approaches to arts-based research:
(1) arts-insight, conducting content re-search for creating artworks,
(2) arts-inquiry, researching an artist’s work or process,
(3) arts-imagination, artmaking as a way to understand,
(4) arts-embodiment, where the arts embody knowledge, and
(5) arts-relationality, integrally living one’s arts research.
Methods
We present descriptive examples from two NSF-funded projects to exemplify ways that art can help reflect or reimagine engineering education.
Example Project 1: A4I focused on bringing forth the voices of minoritized undergraduate engineering students to create faculty development resources. Using narrative methodologies, we created narratives that showcased aspects of student identity and experience that faculty may not understand. Student actors read these narratives, and we shared the recorded narratives with faculty focus groups and as a database more widely.
Example Project 2: The JEDI project supported student-led action research projects to foster inclusion on campus. We encouraged creative forms of research output that would reach constituents directly. One team hosted an arts-based event inviting student participants to express their perspectives on their community spaces.

Evidence
A4I includes art-insight where fairly traditional research (narrative-based Zoom interviews) was conducted to create an art product (audio YouTube recordings) that provided insight into the researched experiences. Sharing the final audio with faculty represents art-embodiment, in that faculty can experience listening to a proverbial minoritized student in ways they may not always have time or access to.
JEDI embodied the idea of creating community by hosting an art event (art-embodiment) inside an existing community space, while simultaneously recognizing the limitations of the current space to foster community and asking student participants to reimagine (art-imagining) the space.
Conclusions
The example projects reflect and reimagine undergraduate engineering education through art that synthesizes research and embodies inclusive engineering education. However, both projects were terminated in April 2025, likely due to their DEI focus. Thus, while these projects inspire more inclusive visions of engineering, they are simultaneously constrained by the current administrative realities.
Scholarly significance
Many education research methods orbit around what is, what was said, what is present, or what can be predicted by a past pattern. “What is” can be limited culturally and we may be curtailing some of our potential for creating inclusive futures through these methods. Arts-based research offers a chance to imagine the changes we want to see in the world.

Authors

• Stephen D. Secules, University of New Mexico

• Nivedita Kumar, Florida International University