Resumen de University makerspacs: opportunities to support equitable participation for women in engineering
Wendy Roldan, Julie Hui, Elizabeth M. Gerber
Undergraduate women are more likely than their male peers to leave engineering majors because they do not feel that theybelong in the engineering classroom. The growth of university makerspaces provides a potential opportunity to establishnew patterns of interactions that provide female students with a sense of community. But we cannot realize this potential toretain female engineering majors, due to our limited understanding of their sense of community in these new universitymakerspaces. A critical examination of how females experience community within makerspaces through an equity lens isneeded to identify what interventions are needed to facilitate the successful participation of a diverse student body. Duringa 13-month qualitative study, we performed 27 interviews with undergraduate female university engineering students andleaders of university makerspaces and engaged in participant observation of university and independent makerspaces toidentify ways to support and limit a sense of community among female students. Our findings inform design principles foruniversity makerspaces to support a sense of community including supporting project assessment, member assessment,perspective taking, signals of approachability, structured help-seeking, and credentialing. Theoretically, we contribute anemergent framework for understanding what mechanisms undergraduate women take into account when evaluating theirsense of community in makerspaces.
