Academic Problem-Solving and Students’ identities as engineers

Socially constructed identities and language practices influence the ways students perceive themselves as learners, problem solvers, and future professionals. While research has been conducted on individuals' identity as engineers, less has been written about how the language used during engineering problem solving influences students' perceptions and their construction of identities as learners and future engineers. This study investigated engineering students' identities as reflected in their use of language and discourses while engaged in an engineering problem solving activity. We conducted interviews with eight engineering students at a large southeastern university about their approaches to open and closed-ended materials engineering problems. A modification of Gee's analysis of language-in-use was used to analyze the interviews. We found that pedagogical and engineering problem solving uses of language were the most common. Participants were more likely to perceive themselves as students highlighting the practices, expectations, and language associated with being a student rather than as emerging engineers whose practices are affected by conditions of professional practice. We suggest that problem solving in an academic setting may not encourage students to consider alternative discourses related to industry, professionalism, or creativity; and, consequently, fail to promote connections to social worlds beyond the classroom. By learning about the ways in which language in particular settings produces identities and shapes problem solving practices, educators and engineering professionals can gain deeper understanding of how language shapes the ways students describe themselves as problem-solvers and make decisions about procedures and techniques to solve engineering problems. Keywords: Engineering Students, Identity, Language-In-Use Engineering practice has been described as focused on problem-solving (Donald, 2002; Sheppard, Macatangay, Colby, & Sullivan, 2008) with most workplace problems being ill-structured (Jonassen, Strobel, & Lee, 2006; Yadav, Shaver, & Meckl, 2010; Yadav, Subedi, Lundeberg, & Bunting, 2011). Further, engineering identities are tied to engineering learning; as students become adept at solving complex problems they begin to transition from an identity as student to an identity as engineer (Tonso, 2014). However, much of the engineering curriculum does not provide opportunities for this identity development. While there are some efforts to introduce design problems in engineering curricula (Dym, Agogino, Eris, Frey, & Leifer, 2005; Marra, Palmer, & Litzinger, 2000) for the most part problems presented to students in academic settings are well-structured (Shin et al., 2003) and thus "engineering graduates are ill-prepared to solve complex, workplace problems (Jonassen, 2014, p. 103)." Although one goal of an engineering education is to establish students' identities as engineers, if the problems they generally solve remain in the academic space they may not develop these identities. Thus, we find it important to investigate how students construct identities through typical academic problems, and this paper is framed around these typical problems. Identities, language in use, and various linguistic practices shape each other and influence the ways in which students experience and perceive themselves as learners and future professionals. By analyzing "language-in-use" (see Gee, 2011a, 2001b) educators and engineering professionals can gain a deeper understanding of how students make decisions about procedures and techniques associated with problem solving. In addition, language influences the identities taken on by individuals. Various theoretical frameworks describe the relationship between language and identity. One classic example is that of Berger and Luckmann (1966) who describe how language (in their words, "conversation") both reinforces the taken-for-granted reality and at the same time changes that reality through what is said or left unsaid. …