The aim of this doctoral research is to explore in depth the information worlds (Jaeger & Burnett, 2010) of female undergraduate engineering students. Although the information behaviour of engineers has been extensively studied, with some studies focusing on students in particular (Mercer et al., 2019), the female perspective is under-researched. There is a lack of research on the impact of marginalised identities on information behaviour, including variables such as gender, race, and class (Julien, 2005).
The research will explore how female engineering students use information as part of their learning process, and how the gender balance and social norms in the learning environment affect the information behaviour of minoritized genders. The research will use a phenomenological approach (Denscombe, 2021) to explore, through in-depth interviews, research questions including: how women engineering students acquire information for their learning needs; the aims and motivations of female students when engaging with information; and the role of affect in women engineering students’ information behaviour.
This paper will present a critical review of the literature. It will outline some theoretical approaches currently being explored, in particular an intersectional feminist approach (Hill Collins & Bilge, 2020; Lennon & Alsop, 2020; Olesen, 2018), and the model of epistemological development among women known as Women’s Ways of Knowing (Belenky et al., 1997/1986).
Intersectional feminism will be used as an underpinning philosophy, to explore the ways in which women are structurally disadvantaged in the highly masculinised field of engineering education (Faulkner, 2005) and the impact this may have on their information behaviours. This paper will review relevant literature related to information behaviours of minoritised genders, particularly within STEM education.
Women’s Ways of Knowing (WWK) will be explored as a lens through which to examine women’s information behaviour. This paper will review how WWK has been applied in library and information science research, since being identified by Julien (2005) as having potential applications for researching information behaviour.
References
Belenky, M. F., Clinchy, B. M., Goldberger, N. R., & Tarule, J. M. (1997). Women’s ways of knowing: The development of self, voice, and mind. Basic Books.
Denscombe, M. (2021). The good research guide. McGraw Hill.
Faulkner, W. (2005). Becoming and belonging: Gendered processes in engineering. In J. Archibald, et al. (Eds.), The gender politics of ICT (pp. 15–25). Middlesex University Press.
Hill Collins, P., & Bilge, S. (2020). Intersectionality. Polity Press.
Jaeger, P. T., & Burnett, G. (2010). Information worlds: Social context, technology, and information behavior in the age of the Internet. Routledge.
Julien, H. (2005). Women’s ways of knowing. In K. E. Fisher, S. Erdelez, & L. McKechnie (Eds.), Theories of information behavior (pp. 387–391). ASIS&T.
Lennon, K., & Alsop, R. (2020). Gender theory in troubled times. Polity Press.
Mercer, K., Weaver, K., & Stables-Kennedy, A. (2019). Understanding undergraduate engineering student information access and needs: Results from a scoping review. In Proceedings of the 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition. American Society for Engineering Education. https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--33485
Olesen, V. (2018). Feminist qualitative research in the millennium’s first decade. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (pp. 151–175). Sage.
