Critical Theories in Engineering Education

Epistemological consistency in theory and methods is required for high-quality research in engineering education and the same is required for high-quality practice in the discipline. In this work, I articulate the theoretical and methodological maps to address research and practice when focused on historically excluded groups in engineering. Extending beyond citing Black, Latinx and Indigenous researchers, I challenge the discipline to broaden its interdisciplinary nature to include critical theory and culturally informed methodology as a necessity for research in the diversity, equity and inclusion umbrella. Further, this work challenges researchers to take on restorative justice and reparative approaches in research, the funding and administration of that research, as well as the derivative publications, scholarly and community discourse.

The reason I want to focus on this area of research is born out of my own experience. As an undergraduate at Spelman College, I was introduced to many critical theories, sociology and psychology in the Black diaspora. It was then that I began identifying myself as a womanist in the tradition of Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks and other Black womanist and feminist scholars. This understanding of the world, how I am seen navigating it and the interlocking systems that inform my experiences became necessary for sanity keeping in my experiences in graduate school and early in my career. The explanatory power that these frameworks provided me were unavailable and not understood in the engineering education spaces I was a part. It was clear to me, that despite being in spaces that talked the talk of diversity, there was no meaningful, theoretical, methodological or real commitment to inclusion. How could a discipline, committed to rigor in research completely overlook the source of answers to one of its greatest, public challenges? Re-engaging this question has brought me back to my discipline and is the result of a personal, healing journey facing the challenges and traumas associated with my training as a Black woman engineering education researcher.

In Conversation: Making Space for More than Race 2021 ASEE Annual Conference - Panel discussion

Journal Entry, July 2020: Affirmation, Inclusion, Equity and Everyone - This editorial was written with three of my mentors - Drs. Cindy Atman, Monica Cox and Jennifer Turns, in the summer of 2020. The piece finally made it to publication in fall of 2021 in the International Journal of Engineering, Social Justice, and Peace in their special edition Engineering in Crisis. Enjoy: https://doi.org/10.24908/ijesjp.v8i2.15144

Upcoming Publication: Reckoning with the Harm of Anti-Blackness in Engineering Education: A Reparatory Justice Research Approach, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering - Dr. James Holly, Jr. and Dr. Lauren Thomas Quigley

Reckoning with the Harm of Anti-Blackness in Engineering Education Research: A Reparative Racial Justice Approach - Facilitated discussion, AAC&U Virtual STEM Conference, November 4-6, 2021