Pathways to Engineering: How Secondary School Students Perceive and Construct Engineering Identity

• In Event: Motivation and Identity in Engineering Education: Pathways from Childhood to University

Abstract

This study investigates early engineering identity formation among secondary school students participating in the Next Engineers program. We examine how core components of identity—interest, recognition, and a sense of competence—emerge and interact during adolescence, and introduce role enactment as a fourth construct: the act of “trying on” the role of an engineer. Drawing on interviews with 51 students across four international sites, we find that role enactment serves as a developmental bridge, reinforcing or compensating for weaker identity components. Our findings suggest that engineering identity is not formed solely through internal reflection but through active, embodied participation. This work offers new insight into the timing, conditions, and experiences that shape students’ emerging identification with engineering.

Authors

• Elizabeth Adelman, FHI 360

• Caitlin Kim, FHI 360

• Rachel Hatch, FHI 360

• Caitlin Dailey

• Ying Wang, FHI 360