Sustainabillity identity as an analytic tool for Engineering Education

Identity has been used as an analytic lens in engineering education for several years now [10] [13] [1] [4]. While there is growing research on how engineering identities are shaped focusing on engineers as problem-solvers [3] and innovators [11], relatively less attention has been given to how values such as sustainability are integrated into these identities. As global challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and social inequities are rising [12], it is also imperative to ask how do engineering students see and feel about themselves in relation to these issues. The concept of a sustainability identity, how students see themselves, how others recognize them as such [4] [1], and how this identity influences their values, choices, and professional aspirations, in relation to sustainability remains relatively underexplored within the engineering education discourse [8]. Addressing and bridging this gap is crucial in preparing future engineers who are not only technically competent but also ethically and environmentally conscious [2]. The study centers engineering students’ meaning-making and lived experiences to understand how they develop, negotiate, and express their sustainability identities within different figured worlds [6] such as different disciplines, academic, social and personal spaces. It aims to develop a framework to understand sustainability identity formation in engineering students supporting informed integration of sustainability in curriculum design and educational practices.