Using Narrative Inquiry to Explore Veteran Undergraduate Experience in Engineering Education

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Narrative Research From the Perspective of the Self

Abstract

This paper reports on narrative research conducted with a returning veteran whose goal was to become an engineer. My own experiences as a veteran and professional engineer inspired me to explore veteran student experience in engineering through a process of coming into relation. Using the relational, transactional methodology of narrative inquiry, we came alongside one another within the context of a two-year, undergraduate engineering transfer program in which he was a student and I was an instructor. During the study, I analyzed research conversations by co-constructing chronological, narrative accounts of veteran student experience. In this paper, I examine these narrative accounts to derive and communicate deeper meaning of veteran student experience in engineering education.

Author

• Angela Minichiello, Utah State University