New paper!
Engineering culture is often driven by norms of competition, individualism, and emotional restraint. That’s hardly news. And that engineering education reproduces these norms? Also not surprising.
But how do these norms actually shape students’ learning experiences, especially when working in team projects meant to mirror their future professional experiences?
Together with Nihat Kotluk (PhD), Yoann Favre, Fiori Marina, Egon Werlen , and Roland Tormey, we explored this question. We invited students at two Swiss technical universities to work in teams over six weeks to develop a language-learning app. And we interviewed them about their emotional experiences.
What did we find?
Broadly speaking, students reproduced dominant masculinity culture:
- They felt pressure to suppress both negative and overly positive emotions to “look confident.” And expressing emotions often meant to be perceived as weak or unprofessional.
- Informal gendered practices (think “guys deciding things in (male) bathrooms”) excluded others, and students thought that it is just how things are.
- Many mirrored a university norm that anything you commit to, you must excel at.
The result? Many students reported lower satisfaction with their learning experiences, increased stress, and weaker team cohesion.
And yet, we also saw resistance.
Students challenged these norms:
- They openly voiced emotional needs and valued emotional expression (negative and positive alike).
- Emotions were used to build trust.
- Caring for each other became part of how they worked. Sometimes through small nonverbal cues, sometimes through direct support.
When asked what they missed most at the end of the project, most students didn’t mention more feedback or better tools. They said: “connection.”
They wanted more time and space to connect—not just perform (altough performance was important).
What struck me most? For many students, this was one of the first times they were both asked and given space to reflect on their emotions. That space is painfully absent from most engineering curricula; yet students long for it.
This is not about being “nice.”
It’s about confronting a masculinity culture that undermines care, collaboration, and change.
Engineering students want a different culture. We need to help build it.
P.S. On a personal note, I want to use this opportunity and to thank Yvonne Benschop 🟥 and Inge Bleijenbergh. Throughout my research journey, they were always ready to discuss, challenge, and debate with me on masculinities in diverse settings. But also: How can it look differently? While working on this paper, I saw just how deeply those conversations affected me and how much I benefited from them. Thank you.
📄 Read the full paper here:
https://lnkd.in/esnNZtWj
Thanks to BeLEARN for funding this research.
EPFL Center for Learning Sciences LEARN - EPFL Journal of Engineering Education
