Constructing 'calculus readiness': Struggling for legitimacy in a diversity-promoting undergraduate engineering program

摘要

How do newcomers to engineering, such as engineering students, become recognized members of the profession? Situated learning theory proposed the notion of legitimate peripheral participation as central to a newcomer's trajectory toward membership in a community of practice. This approach left a number of issues underdeveloped, incluing the issue of what are the processes by which legitimacy was conferred or denied. This is a critically important question in engineering education, given persistent and only partly successful efforts to increase representation in the field of members of historically underrepresented groups.