The elephant in the room First-year engineering students discuss diversity

This work in progress presents a developmental model representing the ability of students to negotiate shared meanings with cultural others in order to build sustainable and mutually beneficial partnerships. The goal of this research is to locate students within this continuum and provide a student-centered starting point in the ways students construct meaning around cultural differences. This paper uses a qualitative inquiry and analysis methodology with a focus on first-year engineering students at a large Midwestern public university and a similar large public university in Australia. The data collected were interviews and focus group discussions probing their experiences with cultural differences. Initial findings demonstrate that in order for students to be able to acknowledge and express their understanding of differences, they need and want models, tools and techniques to be able to communicate their thoughts about cultural differences and to negotiate bridges of mutual understanding. Student interviews in the US reflected more polarizing messages while focus groups in Australia generated more minimizing messages. Engineering educators encourage students to approach and explore both their own cultures (self-knowledge), internal dialogues and other cultures (perceived through the student´s own cultural lenses), and the language they use to describe others.