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Unpacking Professional Shame: Patterns Of White Male Engineering Students Living In And Out Of Threats To Their Identities, James L. Huff Ph.D., Benjamin Okai, Kanembe Shanachilubwa, Nicola W. Sochacka, Joachim Walther

Engineering and Physics Faculty Research and Publications

Background

Although prior research has provided robust descriptions of engineering students' identity development, a gap in the literature exists related to students' emotional experiences of shame, which undergird the socially constructed expectations of their professional formation.

Purpose

We examined the lived experiences of professional shame among White male engineering students in the United States. We conceptualize professional shame to be a painful emotional state that occurs when one perceives they have failed to meet socially constructed expectations or standards that are relevant to their identity in a professional domain.

Method

We conducted unstructured interviews with nine White male engineering students …