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Research Overview

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Main Research Topic

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Research Interests

• Equity and inclusion in STEM education
• Critical qualitative research methodologies
• Educational culture in engineering
• Faculty development for inclusive teaching
• Narratives of historically excluded and post-traditional students

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Ongoing Research

• Faculty Learning about Racial Equity — examining how instructors and departments adopt inclusive practices.
• Student-led Institutional Change — empowering undergraduates to drive reforms in engineering programs.
• Identity & Persistence — exploring intersectional experiences of nontraditional, first-gen, and marginalized students.

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Latest Publication

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Publications by Year

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2025

• Considering the Whole Learner: A Theoretical Examination of Learning and Individual Identity using Cognitive Load Theory.
  G. Van Dyke, C.J. McCall, S. Secules, M.B. Kali, V. Tran. ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 2025.
• From Good Pedagogy to Racial Equity: Experimenting with what works in Engineering Classrooms.
  A. Halkiyo, S. Secules. ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 2025.
• BOARD# 332: CAREER BPE: A Critical Collaborative Ethnography to Center Racial Equity in Engineering Education Research and Practice.
  S. Secules, A.B. Halkiyo, N. Kumar, M.B. Kali. ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 2025.
• Examining Academic Success and Retention of Post-Traditional Students in Engineering Undergraduate Programs.
  H. Long, J. Liu, J.R. Sturgess, J.R. Sosa-Molano, B.T. Berhane, S. Secules. ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 2025.
• On meaningfulness and performativity in engineering education methods practices: The “honest” methods section.
  S. Secules. ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 2025.
• Navigating Intersecting Identities of Historically Excluded Groups and Post-Traditional Students in Engineering.
  H. Long, S. Secules, J. Liu, J.R. Sosa-Molano, J.R. Sturgess, B.T. Berhane. ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 2025.
• Resetting the Default: Welcoming New Engineering Faculty to Inclusive Teaching.
  D.C. Mays, T. Altman, M. Darbeheshti, P. Hwang, C.J. McCall, S. Secules, … ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, 2025.
• “It’s Just a Name Tag”: The Persistence of Caste Through Caste-Blind Discourses in U.S. STEM Education.
  N. Kumar, S. Secules. ASEE Annual Conference, 2025.
• “I can’t see race here”: Pragmatic, theoretical, epistemological, and communicative challenges researchers and instructors have with observing race in engineering classrooms.
  S. Secules, A. Halkiyo, M.B. Kali, N. Kumar. ASEE Annual Conference, 2025.
• First and Final Year of NSF IUSE Funding: The JEDI Ambassador Initiative – A (Terminated) HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project.
  N. Kumar, S. Secules, T. Nicholas. ASEE Annual Conference – NSF Poster, 2025.
• Thinking About Student Support in Higher Education Through the Lens of Intersectional Invisibility.
  M.B. Kali, S. Secules, C. McCall. AERA Annual Meeting, 2025.
• Uncovering Dimensions of Faculty Learning About Racial Equity in Engineering Classrooms.
  S. Secules, A. Halkiyo, N. Kumar, M.B. Kali. AERA Annual Meeting, 2025.
• Developing the Capacity to Change: Conceptualizing Agency within Undergraduate Student-led Action Research Towards Institutional Change.
  N. Kumar, S. Secules, T. Nicholas. AERA Annual Meeting (Colorado), 2025.

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2024

• Staying Resolute in a World Without DEI: A Call for National, Cross-Role, and Institutional Solidarity in the Wake of a DEI Backlash.
  S. Secules. Advances in Engineering Education 12(3): 2–6, 2024.
• Student-led institutional change for diversity and inclusion: Insights from the JEDI Ambassador program.
  S. Secules, N. Kumar, B. Bond-Trittipo, A. Halkiyo, A. Green. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 2024.
• Continuity and Communication Across an Epistemologically Heterogenous Research Community: A Response to Kellam and Jennings (2021).
  S. Secules. Studies in Engineering Education 5(1), 2024.
• The impact of a community of practice scholarship program on students’ computing identity.
  M. Kargarmoakhar, M. Ross, Z. Hazari, S. Secules, M.A. Weiss, … ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE) 24(1): 1–14, 2024.
• Plus multiple ASEE 2024 papers: Board 189 (mentor reflection), mindfulness strategy, UTAs & gender-inclusive engagement, audio narratives, narrative exploration (post-traditional students), liberatory co-curricular alumni perspectives, shifts in career pathways;
  and ICLS 2024 & CoNECD 2024 contributions (empowering students in design; minoritized student audio narratives).

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2023

• Reflections on problems of educational practice in a project course design for professional authenticity, cultural relevance, and sociotechnical integration.
  S. Secules. European Journal of Engineering Education 48(6): 1015–1036, 2023.
• Critical and Cultural Analysis of Engineering Learning.
  S. Secules, G. Pérez, R. Pea, A. Johri. In International Handbook of Engineering Education Research, pp. 199–217, 2023.
• On the importance of (white) humility: Epistemological decentering as a positional orientation towards research.
  S. Secules. Journal of Engineering Education, 2023.
• What Research Can DO: Rethinking Qualitative Research Designs to Promote Change Towards Equity and Inclusion.
  S. Secules, C. McCall. Studies in Engineering Education 4(1): 26–45, 2023.
• Merging Faculty Development and Critical Qualitative Research to Foster Equity in STEM Classrooms.
  S. Secules, M.B. Kali. In Handbook of STEM Faculty Development, p. 109, 2023.
• Plus multiple ASEE 2023 papers (identity coherence & separation; Flit-GAP pathways; audio for inclusion; identity dilemmas; career pathway decisions; danger of a single story), and CoNECD 2023 (LGBTQ+ narratives).

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2022

• Future career pathway perceptions of lower-income computing students through the lens of capital exchange.
  B. Bond-Trittipo, N. Kumar, S. Secules, T. Solis. ASEE Annual Conference, 2022.
• Audio Dissemination for Qualitative and Broadening Participation Research: Lessons Learned and Future Possibilities.
  S. Secules, M.B. Kali, C. McCall. ASEE Annual Conference, 2022.
• Challenging the hegemonic culture of engineering: Curricular and co-curricular methodologies.
  B. Bond-Trittipo, J. Valle, S. Secules, A. Green. CoNECD, 2022.
• The New Normal: Student Perspectives on Supportive University Policies during COVID and Beyond.
  M.B. Kali, S. Secules. CoNECD, 2022.

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2021

• The social construction of professional shame for undergraduate engineering students.
  S. Secules, N.W. Sochacka, J. Huff, J. Walther. Journal of Engineering Education 110: 19–43, 2021.
• Positionality practices and dimensions of impact on equity research: A collaborative inquiry and call to the community.
  S. Secules, C. McCall, J.A. Mejia, C. Beebe, A. Masters, M. Sánchez-Peña, … Journal of Engineering Education 110, 2021.
• When Critical Ethnography Leaves the Field and Enters the Engineering Classroom: A Scoping Review.
  S. Masta, S. Secules. Studies in Engineering Education 2(1): 35–52, 2021.
• Contextualizing the Past to Guide the Future: Situating Three Critical Theoretical Frameworks for Educational Culture.
  S. Secules, A. Mejia. Studies in Engineering Education 1(2): 156–171, 2021.
• Plus ASEE 2021 WIP on non-traditional students; FIE 2021 survey of faculty DEI knowledge; CoNECD 2021 “Including Alice”; and a chapter on diversity & design thinking.

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2020

• Learning While Black: Identity Formation and Experience for Five Black Men Who Transferred Into Engineering Undergraduate Programs.
  B. Berhane, S. Secules, F. Onuma. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering 26(2): 93–124, 2020.
• Expectations in engineering programs: Between social construction and internalized experience.
  H.M. Kamanda, D.G. Wilson, J. Walther, N.W. Sochacka, S. Secules, J.L. Huff. ASEE Proceedings, 2020.
• How to Be a Graduate Student (Before I Forget): A Collection of Experiential Wisdom.
  S. Secules. ASEE Annual Conference, 2020.

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2019

• Making the Familiar Strange: An Ethnographic Scholarship of Integration Contextualizing Engineering Educational Culture as Masculine and Competitive.
  S. Secules. Engineering Studies 11(3): 196–216, 2019.
• Description and Mixed Methods Evaluation of a Novel Hardware-Based Introductory Programming Course.
  S. Secules, W. Lawson. Advances in Engineering Education 7(3): 1–30, 2019.
• Plus ASEE 2019 (Shame in engineering), ASEE 2019 (Smartness dialogue), CoNECD 2019 (Dilemmas in co-curricular support; dialogic discussion), and invited presentations (Carnegie; Leonard Center).

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2018

• Supporting the Narrative Agency of a Marginalized Engineering Student.
  S. Secules, A. Gupta, A. Elby, E. Tanu. Journal of Engineering Education 107(2): 1–33, 2018.
• Zooming Out from the Struggling Individual Student: An Account of the Cultural Construction of Engineering Ability in an Undergraduate Programming Class.
  S. Secules, A. Gupta, A. Elby, C. Turpen. Journal of Engineering Education 107(1): 56–86, 2018.
• Plus IEEE FIE 2018 (paired programming competition), ASEE 2018 (theory-to-practice; shame), CoNECD 2018 (intersectionality & liberatory pedagogy).

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2017

• Rethinking engineering pathways: An exploration of the diverse K-12 school experiences of six Black engineering undergraduates.
  B.T. Berhane, F.J. Onuma, S. Secules. ASEE Annual Conference, 2017.
• Traditional vs Hardware-driven Introductory Programming Courses: a Comparison of Student Identity, Efficacy and Success.
  W.G. Lawson, S. Secules, S. Bhattacharyya, A. Elby, W. Hawkins, T. Dumitras, … ASEE Annual Conference, 2017.
• Putting Diversity in Perspective: A Critical Cultural Historical Context for Representation in Engineering.
  S. Secules. ASEE, 2017.
• The Construction of Competitive White Masculinity as Engineering Educational Culture.
  S. Secules, C. Turpen. American Anthropological Association, 2017.
• Beyond diversity as usual: Expanding critical cultural approaches to marginalization in engineering education.
  S. Secules. University of Maryland, College Park, 2017.
• “Turning Away” from an undergraduate programming student: Revealing culture in the construction of engineering ability.
  S. Secules, A. Gupta, A. Elby, C. Turpen. AERA Annual Meeting, 2017.

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2016

• An Application-Based Freshman Introductory Programming Course using the Raspberry Pi.
  W. Lawson, S. Secules, S. Bhattacharyya. ASEE, 2016.
• An application-based learning approach to programming concepts and methods for engineers.
  W. Lawson, S. Secules, A. Gupta, S.S. Bhattacharyya, A. Elby. ASEE, 2016.
• “Turning away” from the Struggling Individual Student: An Account of the Cultural Construction of Engineering Ability in an Undergraduate Programming Class.
  S. Secules, A. Gupta, A. Elby. ASEE, 2016.

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2015

• Theorizing can contribute to marginalized students’ agency in engineering persistence.
  S. Secules, A. Gupta, A. Elby. ASEE Women in Engineering Division, 2015.
• Piecemeal Versus Integrated Framing of Design Activities.
  S. Secules, A. Gupta, A. Elby. In Analyzing Design Review Conversations, p. 155, 2015.

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2014

• Piecemeal versus integrated design: framing meets design thinking.
  S. Secules, A. Gupta, A. Elby. 2014.

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2009

• Testing the Limits – Quantifying the Degradation of Automatic Speech Recognition in Reverberant Environments.
  S. Secules, J. Braasch. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 126(4 Suppl.): 2218–2218, 2009.
• Quantifying the degradation of automatic speech recognition for reverberant environments.
  S.D. Secules. RPI Thesis, Troy, NY, 2009.