A Systematized Review: Gender and Race in Teamwork in Undergraduate Engineering Classrooms

Teamwork is an essential skill for undergraduate engineering students, and engineering instructors often form teams in the classrooms. However, many factors can affect the effectiveness of teamwork. One factor that could affect the result of teaming is the diversity in teams. Although team diversity could increase creativity and innovation in teams, if not managed well, it could also have negative consequences for teams. Of the various forms of diversity, race and gender have received the most attention in the literature, likely because they provide visual cues to teammates. In this study, we conducted a systematized literature review related to the race and gender in teamwork. To do this systematized literature review we followed the procedure suggested by Borrego, Foster, and Froyd [1]. We searched four different databases including Compendex, Scopus, ERIC, and Education Source. We found 224 articles and used 18 articles for this systematized literature review. We found women and minorities can be affected by working in teams by the perception of professors and students, mode of collaboration and communication, leadership style, team formation strategies, and peer evaluation. We also suggested how we can increase the effectiveness of teamwork in diverse teams.