Using Thematic Analysis to Characterize the Connection Between Sociotechnical Engineering Courses and Students' Sense of Belonging and Engineering Identity

This full research paper explores the connections between students' exposure to sociotechnical engineering coursework and their sense of belonging in engineering and/or engineering identity. We applied thematic analysis to 164 responses from two open-ended survey questions that asked students how their sociotechnical engineering courses affected their sense of belonging in engineering and how they see themselves as an engineer. Using a framework proposed by Fila et al. [1] for teaching engineering within a humanistic lens to help students develop a sense of belonging and their engineering identity, we coded student responses to themes that aligned with the framework's three dimensions: engineering for, with, and as people. We found that 86% of the responding students provided comments that aligned with this framework. The strongest impact on students' engineering identity and/or sense of belonging was through characteristics associated with the engineering for people theme, which supports previous work indicating the impact of sociotechnical engineering courses on students' perspectives. Our findings show more specifically that sociotechnical courses impact students' engineering identity and/or sense of belonging largely by conveying to them the impact they can have on society through their role as an engineer. More broadly, our findings support Fila et al.'s three-dimensional framework for teaching engineering through a humanistic lens.