The Prestige Game: Making Visible the Mental Health Effects of Institutional Prestige Seeking on Underrepresented STEM Students

Katherine Robert; Jessica Deters; Jon A. Leydens

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Equity in Engineering: Uncovering Challenges and Championing Change in STEM Education
Tagged Divisions: Equity and Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY)
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/48128

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Paper Authors

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Katherine Robert Colorado School of Mines

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Dr. Katherine Robert earned her PhD in June 2023 in Higher Education at the University of Denver. She is a former adjunct professor and alumna of the Colorado School of Mines where she also did her doctoral dissertation research with underrepresented engineering students. Katherine uses interdisciplinary, qualitative, arts-based, and culturally responsive research methodologies to uncover the complex subjective experiences of participants with a goal of making visible the systems and mechanisms that reproduce inequities in higher education, especially for disabled and neurodivergent students, faculty, and staff. Katherine discovered her own neurodivergence in the form of autism and ADHD as an adult through her dissertation research with her participants. Her current work focuses on increasing neuro-inclusion in higher education and the workplace so everyone is respected, appreciated, and thrives.

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Jessica Deters University of Nebraska - Lincoln orcid.org/0000-0001-8766-9548

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Dr. Jessica Deters is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and Discipline Based Education Researcher at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. She holds her Ph.D. in Engineering Education and M.S. in Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech, and her B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics from the Colorado School of Mines.

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Jon A. Leydens Colorado School of Mines orcid.org/0000-0001-7434-3354

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Jon A. Leydens is Professor of Engineering Education Research in the Division of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at the Colorado School of Mines, USA. Dr. Leydens' research and teaching interests in engineering education focus on social justice and sociotechnical thinking.

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Abstract

This critical theory and arts-based research methods paper’s purpose is to generate awareness of how institutional prestige seeking may shape underrepresented STEM students’ experiences and wellbeing during their education. Scholars in engineering education have identified high rates of mental health issues among engineering students (e.g., Beddoes and Danomitz, 2022) and have called for a movement away from a culture of stress to a culture of wellness (e.g., Jensen, 2021). To move toward such a culture we need to better understand the institutional mechanisms that keep a culture of stress intact and difficult to transform. Our paper re-examines the critical qualitative data and creative content from a culturally responsive participatory study with female undergraduate STEM students with multiple intersecting underrepresented identities. The study used a unique conceptual framework called creative materialism that included individual semi-structured conversational interviews, weekly participant journal entries, and arts-based research methods with participant-generated creative content of poetry, drawing, painting, and photography as well as a focus group.

In the process of exploring their own experience of socialization into the culture of engineering during their education at an engineering-focused institution in the western U.S. (the initial broad purpose for the study), the students identified institutional prestige seeking as a structural mechanism linked to rigid notions of rigor that harms student well-being. Findings in the original study indicated that notions of extreme rigor in engineering culture seem to unnecessarily exacerbate the culture of stress, which can in turn contribute to declines in student mental health. This paper further maps these participants' perspectives on how institutional prestige seeking and student mental health are interconnected. Multiple broader implications emerged from our analysis, including that in the quest to reduce student stress, engineering education scholars and practitioners may have overlooked links among institutional prestige seeking, cultural notions of rigor, stress, and student mental health. That is, we may have danced around the curriculum–focusing research and intervention efforts in student enrichment experiences, student clubs, and more. Although those extracurricular efforts remain worthwhile areas of inquiry, we suggest that more attention must be paid to how curriculum and pedagogy are entangled with institutional prestige seeking and the resulting fixation on rigor and possible significant mental health consequences. Also, since issues of stress can disproportionately affect students with multiple minoritized, intersecting identities (Cech, 2022; CCMH, 2024), a related implication is that diversity and inclusion efforts should also pay attention to how institutional prestige seeking and the resultant “rigor” in the curriculum can disproportionately affect underrepresented students in engineering education.

Citation
Format

Robert, K., & Deters, J., & Leydens, J. A. (2024, June), The Prestige Game: Making Visible the Mental Health Effects of Institutional Prestige Seeking on Underrepresented STEM Students Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/48128

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - This critical theory and arts-based research methods paper’s purpose is to generate awareness of how institutional prestige seeking may shape underrepresented STEM students’ experiences and wellbeing during their education. Scholars in engineering education have identified high rates of mental health issues among engineering students (e.g., Beddoes and Danomitz, 2022) and have called for a movement away from a culture of stress to a culture of wellness (e.g., Jensen, 2021). To move toward such a culture we need to better understand the institutional mechanisms that keep a culture of stress intact and difficult to transform. Our paper re-examines the critical qualitative data and creative content from a culturally responsive participatory study with female undergraduate STEM students with multiple intersecting underrepresented identities. The study used a unique conceptual framework called creative materialism that included individual semi-structured conversational interviews, weekly participant journal entries, and arts-based research methods with participant-generated creative content of poetry, drawing, painting, and photography as well as a focus group. 

In the process of exploring their own experience of socialization into the culture of engineering during their education at an engineering-focused institution in the western U.S. (the initial broad purpose for the study), the students identified institutional prestige seeking as a structural mechanism linked to rigid notions of rigor that harms student well-being. Findings in the original study indicated that notions of extreme rigor in engineering culture seem to unnecessarily exacerbate the culture of stress, which can in turn contribute to declines in student mental health. This paper further maps these participants&#39; perspectives on how institutional prestige seeking and student mental health are interconnected. Multiple broader implications emerged from our analysis, including that in the quest to reduce student stress, engineering education scholars and practitioners may have overlooked links among institutional prestige seeking, cultural notions of rigor, stress, and student mental health. That is, we may have danced around the curriculum–focusing research and intervention efforts in student enrichment experiences, student clubs, and more. Although those extracurricular efforts remain worthwhile areas of inquiry, we suggest that more attention must be paid to how curriculum and pedagogy are entangled with institutional prestige seeking and the resulting fixation on rigor and possible significant mental health consequences. Also, since issues of stress can disproportionately affect students with multiple minoritized, intersecting identities (Cech, 2022; CCMH, 2024), a related implication is that diversity and inclusion efforts should also pay attention to how institutional prestige seeking and the resultant “rigor” in the curriculum can disproportionately affect underrepresented students in engineering education. 

AU  - Katherine Robert
AU  - Jessica Deters
AU  - Jon A. Leydens
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - The Prestige Game: Making Visible the Mental Health Effects of Institutional Prestige Seeking on Underrepresented STEM Students
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/48128
ER  -