SEFI@Work: Reflexivity and Positionality statements

SEFI@Work: Reflexivity and Positionality statements – examining the impact of our social
identities in engineering education research

Date and time: 6 February 2023 10:00 EST/16:00 CET

Speakers:
Stephen Secules. Florida International University, US 
Cassandra McCall. Utah State University, US
Joel Alejandro Mejia. University of Texas at San Antonio, US

Engineering education researchers; social identities – their backgrounds, world views,
experiences and biases – have an impact on their research: research topic, epistemology,
ontology, methodology, relation to participants, and communication (Secules et al., 2021).
This is particularly important in engineering education research that integrates critical
theoretical frameworks (Mejia, Revelo, Villanueva, & Mejia, 2018). Moreover, As Riley et al.
(2014) note, many research studies on diversity in engineering education are “well-
intentioned, but...somewhat lacking in reflexivity and self-limiting in their impacts” (p. 335).
Recently, journals in engineering education started requiring a positionality statement in
each paper published. Such is the case of the Journal of Engineering Education and the
Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering (Martin, Desing, & Borrego,
2002).

In this session, we will discuss the impact of reflexivity and positionality on equity and social
justice research.