Masking "X"periences: Ethnodrama as a Method to Unpack Role Adaptation in Black Engineering Graduate Students

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Divergent Methods: Interdisciplinary Arts-Based Methodologies in Educational Research

Abstract

The lived experiences of Black engineering graduate students have largely been disseminated traditionally in the form of peer-reviewed scholarly manuscripts, which have impact limited to those who choose to read such literature. This work employed an arts-based research method to move from interview data to narrative construction through to development of a script for an ethnodrama performance. We constructed the story of “X”—a Black male graduate student in systems engineering navigating a prestigious, predominantly White institution (PWI) —through a creative resilience. Anchored in Critical Race and Role Strain Theories, this story represents a counternarrative of the Black experience in higher education in STEM. The emergent script captures the many faces, or masks, and identities worn by Black students.

Authors

• Brooke Coley, Arizona State University

• Debalina Maitra, Arizona State University Polytechnic

• Ameen Khan, Florida International University

• Clarreese Greene, Northern Arizona University

• Michael Greene

• Katreena Thomas, Arizona State University