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...
Main Authors: | , , |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-03-01
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Series: | Frontiers in Communication |
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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. |
first_indexed | 2024-04-10T05:32:21Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-665726be4adc413b93a4f561ba99d2a1 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2297-900X |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-04-10T05:32:21Z |
publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | Article |
series | Frontiers in Communication |
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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