Gendered tensions: engineering student's resistance to communication instruction

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to draw from the authors’ experiences, as women teaching Communication in a College of Engineering and mechanical engineering students’ evaluations, to highlight student resistance to both practices and bodies deemed “feminine.”

Design/methodology/approach

The authors examine how the masculine discipline of engineering might construct a learning environment that is incompatible with feminist ideals. This is illuminated when engineering students are required to learn communication skills from female instructors.

Findings

The authors’ analysis suggests that students’ resistance to communication instruction is gendered. Students often constructed hierarchical relationships where communication was considered “soft” in relation to the “hard” science of engineering instead of integral to the discipline and profession. Students resisted by expressing a lack of utility of information, devaluing feedback and instruction, degrading communication teachers, and questioning their bodies.

Originality/value

The paper discusses implications of a gendered educational context and suggests ways interdisciplinary instruction can be utilized to enhance gender diversity.

Citation

Sullivan, K.R. and Kedrowicz, A.A. (2012), "Gendered tensions: engineering student's resistance to communication instruction", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 31 No. 7, pp. 596-611. https://doi.org/10.1108/02610151211263405