Board 105: Exploring Enculturation in the First-year Engineering Program (Year III)

Abstract For the last two academic years, data has been collected to illustrate the enculturation process to engineering during the first year engineering program at a Southwestern Institution. Enculturation understood as the process of acquiring knowledge, practices and values to the profession is a new perspective, closely related to identity development. During the Academic Years of 2016, 2017, almost two thousand students in the first engineering program were asked about their understanding of engineering and enculturation to engineering via an online survey. The specific questions in the survey were: 1. Why do you want to be an engineer? 2. What is your understanding of being an engineer? 3. Define in your own words Engineering Culture. In addition, approximately 50 students have participated in focus groups attempting to triangulate results. Preliminary results show that students' first understanding of engineering as a culture aligns to the way the question is presented (same terms and concepts) but change over time. They look similar to the engineering taxonomies concept of Identities. 'Identities' however does not capture the perceptions of students of engineering as a culture (external to them) neither it approaches the engineering college program as the process of assimilation to such culture. This poster shows the results of the process of engineering education theory building for the specific case of enculturation in the first year program.