Representations of underrepresented characters in engineering children books

Women, people with disabilities, Blacks, Latinas and American Indians are considered underrepresented in engineering fields because they constitute a small portion of engineering students and the population of professional engineers in the United States. In order to increase underrepresented engineering degree recipients, it is necessary to provide opportunities for underrepresented students to develop their self-concept and experience positive and effective pre-college engineering experiences. Children's experiences are potentially influenced by picture books. Previous studies reveal that children compare themselves with the characters in their books who share the same backgrounds and consider the characters as role models (e.g. [1] & [2]). The picture books characters can affect children's perceptions of their backgrounds and influence their self-concepts. To address this possibility our research team examined children's books about engineering. We looked into the portrayal of underrepresented characters in 14 engineering picture books for children ages 4–8. To examine the characters' genders, ages, ethnicities, and abilities, we conducted a quantitative content analysis of these picture books based on Krippendorff's method [3]. The result of the study indicates that, though still being underrepresented, different groups of underrepresented populations are depicted more frequently in engineering picture books than the engineering field itself.