Pains and portends: A collaborative autoethnography of engineering faculty navigating gendered cultures

This mediated collaborative autoethnography uses reproduced dialogue, poetic inquiry, and composite, fictionalized narratives to story the gendered experiences of two instructional faculty teaching a coordinated engineering class and working in an undergraduate engineering program at a large public...

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Main Authors: Callie A. Miller, Daniel I. Castaneda, Melissa Wood Alemán
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-01
Series:Frontiers in Communication
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2023.1023594/full
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author Callie A. Miller
Daniel I. Castaneda
Melissa Wood Alemán
author_facet Callie A. Miller
Daniel I. Castaneda
Melissa Wood Alemán
author_sort Callie A. Miller
collection DOAJ
description This mediated collaborative autoethnography uses reproduced dialogue, poetic inquiry, and composite, fictionalized narratives to story the gendered experiences of two instructional faculty teaching a coordinated engineering class and working in an undergraduate engineering program at a large public university. The contrasting, gendered narratives of the engineering faculty storied in this paper illuminate several themes: (1) discourses of gendered relational labor (masculinized savior vs. feminized emotional work); (2) gendered experiences of invisibility (not being heard or recognized for expertise) and hypervisibility (as a woman in engineering); and (3) the discounting and attempted diminishment of gendered issues in organizational settings. While self-reflexive and dialogic practices embodied in this autoethnography reveal the transformative possibility of accomplices in disrupting gendered relations of power and activating social change from within, those practices alone are insufficient to trouble the masculine culture of engineering. Authentic change demands that these practices be joined with structural, organizational changes in order to reconcile disparate, gendered experiences in engineering cultures, lest the exodus of women from masculine-dominant engineering fields persist unabated.
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spelling doaj.art-665726be4adc413b93a4f561ba99d2a12023-03-07T05:42:44ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Communication2297-900X2023-03-01810.3389/fcomm.2023.10235941023594Pains and portends: A collaborative autoethnography of engineering faculty navigating gendered culturesCallie A. Miller0Daniel I. Castaneda1Melissa Wood Alemán2Independent Scholar, Harrisonburg, VA, United StatesDepartment of Engineering, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, United StatesSchool of Communication Studies, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, United StatesThis mediated collaborative autoethnography uses reproduced dialogue, poetic inquiry, and composite, fictionalized narratives to story the gendered experiences of two instructional faculty teaching a coordinated engineering class and working in an undergraduate engineering program at a large public university. The contrasting, gendered narratives of the engineering faculty storied in this paper illuminate several themes: (1) discourses of gendered relational labor (masculinized savior vs. feminized emotional work); (2) gendered experiences of invisibility (not being heard or recognized for expertise) and hypervisibility (as a woman in engineering); and (3) the discounting and attempted diminishment of gendered issues in organizational settings. While self-reflexive and dialogic practices embodied in this autoethnography reveal the transformative possibility of accomplices in disrupting gendered relations of power and activating social change from within, those practices alone are insufficient to trouble the masculine culture of engineering. Authentic change demands that these practices be joined with structural, organizational changes in order to reconcile disparate, gendered experiences in engineering cultures, lest the exodus of women from masculine-dominant engineering fields persist unabated.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2023.1023594/fullautoethnographygenderengineering educationstemreflexivitydialogue
spellingShingle Callie A. Miller
Daniel I. Castaneda
Melissa Wood Alemán
Pains and portends: A collaborative autoethnography of engineering faculty navigating gendered cultures
Frontiers in Communication
autoethnography
gender
engineering education
stem
reflexivity
dialogue
title Pains and portends: A collaborative autoethnography of engineering faculty navigating gendered cultures
title_full Pains and portends: A collaborative autoethnography of engineering faculty navigating gendered cultures
title_fullStr Pains and portends: A collaborative autoethnography of engineering faculty navigating gendered cultures
title_full_unstemmed Pains and portends: A collaborative autoethnography of engineering faculty navigating gendered cultures
title_short Pains and portends: A collaborative autoethnography of engineering faculty navigating gendered cultures
title_sort pains and portends a collaborative autoethnography of engineering faculty navigating gendered cultures
topic autoethnography
gender
engineering education
stem
reflexivity
dialogue
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2023.1023594/full
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AT melissawoodaleman painsandportendsacollaborativeautoethnographyofengineeringfacultynavigatinggenderedcultures