Some authors have argued that a feminist pedagogy in engineering courses could invigorate engineering curricula and improve classroom climates, particularly for women and other underrepresented students. Feminist pedagogy is especially concerned with the hierarchical dimensions embedded in the learning context which can create "chilly climates", limiting educational possibilities. Few formal studies have been conducted, however, investigating the actual practices utilized by engineering faculty within the classroom. Using qualitative data from 26 engineering faculty members employed at four-year universities, we examine how engineering educators conceptualize effective teaching methods. Their beliefs about effective teaching are compared with existing literature about alternative approaches to effective teaching, theorized by "feminist pedagogy" researchers. The data suggests that engineering educators in our sample exhibit a range of beliefs about how to achieve effective teaching. Some strongly condemn a "lecture-only" approach for reasons that clearly overlap with a feminist pedagogical model. Feminist pedagogy experts place an overt, and reflexive, emphasis on context in order to address relations of power embedded in the classroom structure. Because "climate" is an elusive and tricky topic to tackle in engineering education, our data incorporates voices from a range of professors to present a few perspectives and practices that address this important issue.
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