Presented by: Sara Rimer

1. Liberian Female Engineering Students Persisting
in Engineering: A Qualitative Study
Sara Rimer
srimer@umich.edu
University of Michigan Doctoral Student
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Graduate Society of Women Engineers Co-Director
Graduate Certificate in Engineering Education Research

2. My objectives for this talk:
➢ Provide background information
about Liberia,
➢ particularly, the state of
undergraduate, engineering
female students in Liberia
➢ Present overview of EHELD
Summer Start program
➢ Give a quick overview of
engineering education research
➢ Share some preliminary results

3. Liberia is in the process of rebuilding following
over a decade long civil war.

4. Women comprise less than 5% of the engineering students at
University of Liberia and face harassment on day to day
basis.
“...transactional sex, or 'sex for grades,' and sexual intimidation from
teachers and faculty was a major theme across all the universities”
“...rape, fear of, sexual harassment and assault were commonly
reported experiences among female students today”
“...women experience gendered forms of exclusion and intimidation
when participating in political groups.”
“...beyond facing risks on their campuses, students fear and experience
insecurities when traveling to and from campus, especially at night.”
“...local level duty bearers, including university authorities, expressed
limited recognition and responsibility for many safety risks women
faced.”
From ActionAid's “Women and the city: Examining the gender impact of violence and
urbanization” (2011):

5. The EHELD grant has a particular emphasis on
increasing the amount of women in engineering.
The Excellence in Higher Education for
Liberian Development (EHELD) project is a
USAID-funded 5-year grant to improve the
agriculture and engineering sectors of Liberia
The University of Michigan's College of
Engineering is a subcontractor on the grant
with a focus on providing summer programs for
engineering and agriculture students, namely
Summer Start.

6. Summer Start program has been implemented
the past three summers.
Three objectives of the program:
1.To better prepare outstanding
engineering and agriculture students
for the coming school year
2.To make the students more excited
about their careers in engineering
and agriculture
3.To give students necessary
experiences and skills they do not
currently receive at their university

7. Half of the participants at the UM CoE-
implemented Summer Start are women.
➢ Four-week residential
➢ 80 student participants
➢ Half engineering, half agriculture
➢ Incoming freshmen and
sophomores
➢ Remedial courses in morning
(physics, math, english)
➢ Labs in afternoon (engineering
design lab, computer lab)
➢ Life skills course

8. Engineering education is a combination of
social research and engineering
Social science
(e.g. psychology, sociology,
anthropology, science, and philosophy)
Educational research
Engineering education research
Engineering research

9. Engineering education research is more than
“how to teach” and curriculum development.
● It is about how students learn engineering
●
Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods
● Various conceptual framework
Examples:
Disciplinary thinking development
Learner-centered approaches
Community in the classroom
Assessment development

10. Qualitative research serves as a compliment
to quantitative research.
● Less use of positivist or postpositivist perspectives
(i.e. there exists an objective truth)
● Capturing the individual’s point of view
● Examining the constraints of everyday life
● Securing rich descriptions.
Denzin and
Lincoln (2005)
Qualitative research tends to have the following
characteristics:

11. Research questions:
What are the experiences of female Liberian
students studying engineering?
How does Summer Start affect Liberian female
student perceptions of and motivations to persist in
engineering, and planned approaches to their
continued education?

12. Semi-structured interviews with the female
students was primary method to this study.
Qualitative, exploratory
study
Conceptual framework
grounded in motivational
theory
Self-efficacy
Expectancy/Value theory
Focused on gathering rich
descriptions from the
students

13. Preliminary results
● Trailblazers in Liberia for their field
● Major interest in geology
● Fathers have significant influence in
motivation to study engineering
●
While Summer Start is a first step for the
female students:
Harassment is still pervasive
Very few “safe” men
Role models are minimal
Other women are sometimes their largest
barriers
Women supporting each other and
organizing together is not necessarily
“safe”

14. Questions?