Eliciting P 12 Mexican Teachers’ Images Of Engineering: What Do Engineers Do?

This study collected data using a modified Draw an Engineer (DAE) test followed up by unstructured informal interviews. The 134 Mexican teachers participating in the study were given the DAE test at the beginning of an unrelated workshop. The purpose of the DAE test was to determine individual conceptions of engineers and engineering. Analysis of the teachers’ drawings and answers to question prompts indicated the emergence of three main categories: 1) Engineers in action, 2) Occurrence of gender, and 3) Engineering tools. Drawings recorded as Repairing-Building represent 22% and portrayed mainly engineers working on a construction site. Further, 83% of the drawings were recorded as Designing-Supervising-Experimenting, depicting individuals who are mainly supervising others work. Even though the female participants (107) in this program were almost four times the number of male participants, the majority (72%) of the drawings depicted a male engineer at work. The DAE test appears to be an appropriate tool to elicit perception of the engineering profession among Mexican teachers. Analysis of constructed responses indicates that most teachers held common misconceptions about engineers while very few were knowledgeable about what engineers do.