Resumen de Using photovoice to enhance mentoring for underrepresented pre-engineering students
Lisa Bosman, Kelli Chelberg, Nathalie Duval-Couetil
The aim of the studyis to investigate barriers and motivators faced byAmerican Indian students wishing to transfer from 2-year pre-engineering associate degree program to a 4-year bachelor’s degree program using the active learning approach ofphotovoice and photo-elicitation. Five community college pre-engineering students participated in the study, whichrequired them to meet with a faculty mentor about every 2 weeks and respond to four photovoice prompts. For eachprompt students were required to take two pictures and write narratives explaining them. The photos and narratives werequalitatively assessed to identify four emerging themes related to enrolling and persisting in engineering education: (1)scheduling and prioritizing, (2) routine and structure, (3) family and community, and (4) avoidance motivation. This papermakes several contributions. First, it provides an example of how to apply photovoice and photo-elicitation to engineeringeducation as an active learning approach to increase communication skills and reflection. Second, it highlights how theapproach can be used to improve student success for non-traditional, underrepresented students. Third, the findingsprovide evidencefor improved resiliency and increased student satisfaction when this active learning approach is combinedwith mentoring and applied to engineering education through the non-traditional pedagogical approach of photovoiceand photo-elicitation.
