The underrepresentation of women in STEM fields, particularly engineering, is a prominent concern in the United States (U.S.), comprising only about 20% of the student population and workforce. Despite decades of efforts, this disparity persists due to harmful “othering” experiences in male-dominated environments, leading to a reduced sense of belonging. Women of Color face additional challenges of gendered racism, further impacting their wellbeing and belonging. In contrast, Muslim-majority (MM) countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region boast an average of 40% women's participation in engineering. This research uses a community cultural wealth framework and the intersectionality of Muslim women to explore cultural assets influencing belonging among women engineers in the MENA region, understanding cultural values and practices shaping their career choices and satisfaction. Considering the diverse cultures within MM countries, shared Islamic principles guide societal norms. Semi-structured interviews with (15–21) Muslim women engineering graduates from MENA aim to understand the influence of culture, family, language, and religion on their sense of belonging. The findings could inform strategies for promoting gender diversity and inclusion in engineering, potentially offering insights applicable beyond the MENA region, including the U.S.

This research paper explores the intersectionality of disabled students in engineering education, with a novel focus on using music as a reflective tool during the research process. Drawing from intersectionality frameworks - which emphasize the compounded nature of identities such as race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, disability status, age, and geographical location - this study investigates the unique ways in which disabled students with multiple marginalized identities navigate through undergraduate engineering. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seventeen disabled undergraduate engineering students over the 2023–2024 school year. At the end of each interview, students were asked to select songs that represented their experiences in engineering as individuals with multiple marginalized identities. The analysis of their chosen songs and the lyrics' relevance to their personal narratives provided a deeper understanding of the intersections of sexism, ableism, and capitalism within their educational experiences. The full paper expands on how music served not only as a method for eliciting rich, qualitative data but also as a reflective tool for both interviewees and researchers.

Students with disabilities*, including those in engineering, are well known to face a multitude of challenges, including social, physical, emotional, and economic barriers, while navigating higher education. Institutional policies and practices are key drivers to the functioning of a university and, as such, play an important role in the protections, experiences, inclusion, and support of disabled students. This Work-in-Progress Research paper reviews institutional disability-related policies and practices at five U.S. higher education institutions. The five institutions were selected to represent a range of institutional types (private vs. public), geographic locations, and sizes (of their engineering programs). Building on the University Disability Inclusion Dashboard developed by The Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center, we focus our analysis on two specific aspects of institutional policies and practices: (1) accommodations for disabled students and (2) public image around disability inclusion. Our analysis found that vagueness within the accommodations process and limitations to publicly available information contributes to weakened robustness in the accommodations, support, and protections currently provided to disabled students across universities. This research represents a needed first step to assess the current state of structural, institutional support (or lack thereof) for disabled students in engineering. *In this paper, we chose to rotate between the usage of the terms “students with disabilities” (SWDs) and “disabled students” in an attempt to include all students and their identity-first or person-first language preferences.

We report the results of an action research study in which a modified mastery-based learning approach was implemented in three undergraduate engineering courses: engineering statistics, LabVIEW programming, and environmental engineering. In this paper, we describe both the action research and the modified mastery-based learning approach that was implemented. Findings from the analysis of data on student performance, and student and faculty perceptions of the approach are presented. In addition, we discuss our recommendations for modifications to the approach that could be used in future implementations.

The purpose of this investigation was to develop the STEM Active Listening Skills Assessment (STEM-ALSA), a conceptually grounded instrument designed to measure four components of active listening, a key element of communication in an academic setting. The STEM-ALSA is comprised of three unique scales that measure a person's knowledge (12 items), ability to apply (25 items), and self-efficacy (5 items) with respect to active listening. Two pilot studies were conducted with N = 99 upper level undergraduate students enrolled in STEM disciplines to develop and evaluate the instrument. Results of an exploratory factor analysis identified both a unidimensional factor structure for each of the three scales and total scores with adequate internal consistency reliability estimates. The STEM-ALSA provides a mechanism for measuring active listening skills among students in STEM.