A narrative inquiry of women international students in engineering programs in Australia

Gan, Wen Qian

A narrative inquiry of women international students in engineering programs in Australia

Gan, Wen Qian

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Publication Type:: Thesis
Issue Date:: 2023

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Gan, Wen Qian
dc.date.accessioned	2023-11-26T21:22:27Z
dc.date.available	2023-11-26T21:22:27Z
dc.date.issued	2023
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/173559
dc.description	University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.description.abstract	The underrepresentation of women in engineering is a longstanding issue due to various structural and cultural barriers. Despite growing numbers of women engineers in non-Western nations, existing research is primarily situated in the Western context. Within Australia, women international students have exhibited the highest growth rate in engineering over the past 10 years. A closer look into this population is warranted, to enable deeper understanding on how cultural context influences engineering participation. This research examines the pathways and experiences of women international students in engineering. Existing literature on this population typically assumes linear pathways and treats them as a homogeneous population. These approaches do not account for the multiplicity of journeys and intersection of identities. In this study, narrative inquiry is adopted as a methodology to foreground under-represented individuals’ voices and experiences. Through semi-structured interviews, narratives were collected from six participants across different engineering disciplines and home countries. Each participant’s engineering story is featured in this thesis along with an analysis based on the Personal, Practical and Methodological dimensions. The Personal dimension addresses why these narratives matter to the researcher personally; the Practical dimension addresses how this study makes a difference to practice; the Methodological dimension addresses how this research contributes to theoretical understandings of narrative inquiry as a methodology. The findings highlight how individual motivations are intertwined with familial and social expectations. They challenge the notion of the ‘leaky pipeline,’ and reassert that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to addressing challenges faced by students. Stereotypes about engineering lead to certain demographic groups continuing to dominate the profession. However, there is a both a business and social justice case for a more diverse engineering workforce that better represents the society from which it is drawn. Through narrative methodology, this study sheds light on ways to attract and retain diverse individuals within engineering, informs pedagogical approaches within higher education, and presents recommendations for practitioners, policymakers and researchers.	en_US.UTF-8
dc.format	Thesis (PhD)
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US.UTF-8
dc.relation	https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/173559/1/thesis.pdf
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	The author owns the copyright in this thesis including all reproduction and reuse rights for the work. The work may not be altered without the permission of the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from this thesis.
dc.rights	© 2023 Wen Qian Gan
dc.rights	au.edu.uts.lib/cph
dc.title	A narrative inquiry of women international students in engineering programs in Australia	en_US.UTF-8
dc.type	Thesis
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*

Abstract:

The underrepresentation of women in engineering is a longstanding issue due to various structural and cultural barriers. Despite growing numbers of women engineers in non-Western nations, existing research is primarily situated in the Western context. Within Australia, women international students have exhibited the highest growth rate in engineering over the past 10 years. A closer look into this population is warranted, to enable deeper understanding on how cultural context influences engineering participation. This research examines the pathways and experiences of women international students in engineering. Existing literature on this population typically assumes linear pathways and treats them as a homogeneous population. These approaches do not account for the multiplicity of journeys and intersection of identities. In this study, narrative inquiry is adopted as a methodology to foreground under-represented individuals’ voices and experiences. Through semi-structured interviews, narratives were collected from six participants across different engineering disciplines and home countries. Each participant’s engineering story is featured in this thesis along with an analysis based on the Personal, Practical and Methodological dimensions. The Personal dimension addresses why these narratives matter to the researcher personally; the Practical dimension addresses how this study makes a difference to practice; the Methodological dimension addresses how this research contributes to theoretical understandings of narrative inquiry as a methodology. The findings highlight how individual motivations are intertwined with familial and social expectations. They challenge the notion of the ‘leaky pipeline,’ and reassert that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to addressing challenges faced by students. Stereotypes about engineering lead to certain demographic groups continuing to dominate the profession. However, there is a both a business and social justice case for a more diverse engineering workforce that better represents the society from which it is drawn. Through narrative methodology, this study sheds light on ways to attract and retain diverse individuals within engineering, informs pedagogical approaches within higher education, and presents recommendations for practitioners, policymakers and researchers.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/173559