Using Photovoice to Enhance Mentoring for Underrepresented Pre-Engineering Students

The aim of the study is to investigate barriers and motivators faced by American Indian students wishing to transfer from 2-year pre-engineering associate degree program to a 4-year bachelor's degree program using the active learning approach of photovoice and photo-elicitation. Five community college pre-engineering students participated in the study, which required them to meet with a faculty mentor about every 2 weeks and respond to four photovoice prompts. For each prompt students were required to take two pictures and write narratives explaining them. The photos and narratives were qualitatively assessed to identify four emerging themes related to enrolling and persisting in engineering education: (1) scheduling and prioritizing, (2) routine and structure, (3) family and community, and (4) avoidance motivation. This paper makes several contributions. First, it provides an example of how to apply photovoice and photo-elicitation to engineering education as an active learning approach to increase communication skills and reflection. Second, it highlights how the approach can be used to improve student success for non-traditional, underrepresented students. Third, the findings provide evidence for improved resiliency and increased student satisfaction when this active learning approach is combined with mentoring and applied to engineering education through the non-traditional pedagogical approach of photovoice and photo-elicitation.