This document summarizes the research projects and methods of the Research in Feminist Engineering (RIFE) group. The group investigates four main projects using both quantitative and qualitative methods: 1) the career pathways of women faculty in STEM using oral histories and participatory research, 2) the impact of policies on work-life balance using policy texts and interviews, 3) understanding institutional climate through robust survey instruments, and 4) assessing sustainability knowledge in engineering students through interviews and expert workshops. The group aims to broaden conversations about engineering using feminist lenses even when not obvious and argues for social change through applied research.

1. Research in Feminist Engineering (RIFE)
School of Engineering Education Research Seminar, FRNY B124
April 15, 2010 1

2. First, a game!
Think Jeopardy...
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3. Feminist Engineering Research Methods Myths
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4. Our Team
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5. Our Research
We investigate four main projects:
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7. ADVANCE Purdue
Research studies:
• Academic Career Pathways (ACP-ADVANCE)
• Institutional Ethnography (IE-ADVANCE)
• Climate Study
Research sponsored by National Science Foundation HRD-0811194 7

8. ADVANCE Purdue
ACP-ADVANCE
To study the careerjourneys of women faculty
members in terms of their interests in STEM
disciplines, their interest in Purdue
University, their experiences with different
policies and programs of Purdue and their
perceptions accordingly.
Hoegh, Jordana and Alice L. Pawley. “Modeling the career pathways of women
STEM faculty through oral histories and participatory research methods.”
Conference proceedings of the 2010 American Society for Engineering
Education National Conference and Exposition, Louisville KY, June 20-23 2010. 8

9. ADVANCE Purdue
ACP-ADVANCE Research Questions
(1) What are the academic career pathways of women faculty in
STEM disciplines at Purdue, beginning from their point of
hire, and how do they vary by ethnicity?
(2) Apart from “pipeline” and “chilly climate” metaphors, what
other metaphors explain the career experiences of women
faculty members of STEM disciplines? How mightthose
metaphors explain STEM faculty members’ career
experiences in ways not explained by the traditional
metaphors?
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10. ADVANCE Purdue
ACP-ADVANCE Methods
Data: oral history; participatory research
(1) Individual interviews
(2) Story-telling circles
– group interviews
How do people tell their own stories?
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11. ADVANCE Purdue
IE-ADVANCE
Study the impact of policies on the work
experiences and work-life balance of women
tenure-track faculty members of STEM
disciplinesat Purdue.
– Promotion and Tenure (P&T)
– Parental Leave (PL)
Banerjee, Dina and Alice L. Pawley. “Institutional Ethnography: A research
method to investigate the work-life experiences of women faculty members in
STEM disciplines.”Conference proceedings of the 2010 American Society for
Engineering Education National Conference and Exposition, Louisville KY, June
20-23 201o.
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12. ADVANCE Purdue
IE-ADVANCE Research Questions
(1) How might a boundary metaphor (in contrast to pipeline and
climate metaphors) explain STEM faculty members’ career
experiences (particularly focusing on minority women faculty)
in ways not explained by pipeline or climate metaphors? (same
as Academic Career Pathways)
(2) How do institutionally generated texts (at the university and
college levels) shape STEM faculty members’ (particularly
underrepresented minority women) experiences in ways that
prescribe certain ways of being, or measures of success?
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13. ADVANCE Purdue
IE-ADVANCE Methods
(1) Policy texts
– Parental leave
– Promotion & tenure
(2) Individual interviews
– Policy users
– Policy administrators
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14. ADVANCE Purdue
Climate
To understand institutional climate
through robust instruments by strongly
accounting for validity and reliability.
To make the ADVANCE-Purdue climate
survey instruments the gold standard of
measures, in order to enable other
institutions to use
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15. ADVANCE Purdue
Climate Research Questions
(1) How well does “climate” metaphor explain women’s
experiences?
(2) How do faculty in STEM disciplines describe the
working climate at Purdue?
(3) How does this vary by gender and ethnicity?
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16. ADVANCE Purdue
Climate Method A
(1) Survey instrument
(1) Assess the landscape
(2) Content Validity
(3) Pilot study
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17. ADVANCE Purdue
Climate Method B
Use data collected through ACP:
• Interviews with individual faculty
• Storytelling circles
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18. Assessing Sustainability Knowledge
(ASK)
Create a framework by which to assess
sustainability knowledge in
undergraduate engineering students.
• Assess:
– pre-existing sustainability research within
engineering education,
– expert opinions/ ideas about sustainability and how
they map on to students’ current knowledge.
Research sponsored by National Science Foundation EEC-0935066
RanjaniRao, Alice L. Pawley, Stephen R. Hoffmann, Matthew W. Ohland, and
Monica E. Cardella. “Work in Progress: Development of a framework to Assess
Sustainability Knowledge (ASK) in engineering undergraduate students.” Submitted
to the Frontiers in Education Conference, Washington DC (October 27-30).
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19. Assessing Sustainability Knowledge
(ASK)
Research questions
(1) How is sustainability represented in research
literature?
(2) How do students understand sustainability and its
role in engineering design?
(3) How do expert practitioners in the field of
sustainability/sustainable development frame
sustainability?
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20. Assessing Sustainability Knowledge
(ASK)
Methods
(1) Qualitative content analysis of research literature in
the area of sustainability in engineering
(2) In-depth interviews with undergraduate engineering
students
(3) Expert workshop/brainstorming sessions
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21. Gender in JEE
This project articulates future research
directions possible at the intersection
of
gender and engineering education.
Nelson, Lindsey and Alice L. Pawley. “Using the Emergent
Methodology of Domain Analysis to Answer Complex Research
Questions.” Conference proceedings of the 2010 American Society for
Engineering Education National Conference and Exposition, Louisville21

22. Gender in JEE
Research questions
(1) What is the history of research at the intersection of
gender and engineering education as published in
the Journal of Engineering Education between 1998
and 2008?
(2) What opportunities exist to broaden the scope of
research conducted at the intersection of gender and
engineering education?
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23. Gender in JEE
Methods
Data: JEE journal articles, 1998-2008
Analysis: Domain analysis
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24. Gender in JEE
Methods
1. Locate a social environment to observe.
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25. Gender in JEE
Methods
2. Decide what evidence already present in that
environment helps you answer your question.
Dimension Description Example of a design review event
Space The physical place or places A small conference room with a whiteboard
Actor The people involved 2 professors, 5 students
Activity A set of related acts that people do Present a Powerpoint presentation, Review
various journals created by students
Object The physical things present Table, chairs, computer, notebooks, pens
Act Single actions that people do Advance a slide, ask a question
Event A set of related activities that Design review
people carry out
Time The sequencing that takes place Senior professor talks (2 min), students takes
over time turn each speaking for 2 minutes, other
professor interjects questions during talk
Goal The things people are trying to Convey details of a design, articulate a design
accomplish to client, respond to feedback
Feeling The emotions felt and expressed Exhaustion, elation, frustration, joy, defeat 25

26. Gender in JEE
Methods
3. Identify inter-relationships between the evidence
Semantic Rel. Generic Form Examples
Strict Inclusion X is a kind of Y Freshmen students are a kind of population
investigated byengr education researchers
Spatial X is a part of Y A lab bench is part of a laboratory.
Cause-effect X is the result of Y Delivering a portion of a presentation is a
result of peer selection.
Rationale X is a reason for doing Y The problem of underrepresentation is a
reason for doing gendered research in
engineering education.
Location-for-action X is a place for doing Y A conference is a place for speaking on
research.
Function X is used for Y Late evenings are used for assembling
presentations.
Means-End X is a way to do Y Focus groups are a way to gather
information about students’ experiences.
Sequence X is a step in Y Creating a prototype is a step in the design
process.
Attribution X is a characteristic of Y Authority is a characteristic of the client.
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27. Gender in JEE
Methods
4. Organize these relationships according to a question
tree.
• Complex question: How do engineering education
researchers research gender?
• Grand tour question: Who focuses on gender as a research
area (actors)?
• Inter-relationship question: What reasons do they provide
to motivate their research (goals, rationale)?
• Deepening question: What sources, if any, are cited to
validate these reasons (object, function)?
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28. What is Engineering To You?
(WIETY)
This project explores engineering
epistemologies of students through
photographic elicitation.
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29. What is Engineering To You?
(WIETY)
Research questions
(1) What are enduring stories in engineering that
students use to describe what they do?
(2) Why and to whom are these stories compelling?
(3) What stories are not included as engineering?
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30. What is Engineering To You?
(WIETY)
Methods
Data collection:
(1) Individual Interviews
(2) Focus Group Interviews
Analysis: Emergent Qualitative Coding
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31. What’s the unifying theme here?
• Use informed and feminist social theory,
including that on race, class and gender,
even when not obvious (e.g., ASK);
• Applied research: arguing for social change.
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32. Visit us online
feministengineering.org (under construction)
http://tinyurl.com/RIFEGroup-FB
http://www.purdue.edu/dp/advance/
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33. Questions?
Thank you for being here!
We value your feedback...
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35. What is
“feminist engineering?”
Studying engineering and engineering
practice using the lenses of gender,
race and class to effect social change.
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36. Why do we care about
feminist engineering?
Taking a feminist approach allows us to
look at engineering epistemologically, and
see this very big system of engineering
through different lenses….
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37. What do we hope to
accomplish through our
research?
To broaden the research and practice
conversation about what engineering is;
To inspire other scholars to talk about this.
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38. How do we decide what
methods are appropriate?
Deciding what evidence best
answers our research question
guides our choice of methods.
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39. Why thesemethods to
answer our RQs?
Each is a lens to help us understand
the lives of women.
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40. Do we always succeed?
Yes…
we succeed even in our failures.
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41. Feminist engineering is only
about the study of women.
True/False?
FALSE
We definitely use lenses that are relevant to
the lives of women. But our work helps
look at masculinities as well.
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42. Feminist engineering research uses
only one research method.
True/False?
FALSE
We use many methods...
Quantitative: Qualitative:
Survey, Institutional Ethnography, domain
review of analysis, survey, in depth interviewing,
literature oral history, discourse analysis,
using meta action/participatory research, photo
analysis elicitation (content analysis), focus
groups
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43. Failures in research prevent us
from moving forward.
True/False?
FALSE
For RIFE, this is a stepping stone to
“think outside the box.”
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