> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://stephensecules.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Research & Publications

> Research focus and selected works by Dr. Stephen Secules

# Research Overview

## Main Research Topic

Dr. Stephen Secules focuses on **equity-centered engineering education research**. His work applies **critical qualitative methods** to everyday classroom settings, aiming to shift engineering education towards **justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI)**.

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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

**Considering the Whole Learner: A Theoretical Examination of Learning and Individual Identity using Cognitive Load Theory**
*G Van Dyke, CJ McCall, S Secules, MB Kali, V Tran*
*2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition*

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# Publications by Year

### 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.

### 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).

### 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).

### 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.

### 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.

### 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.

### 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).

### 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).

### 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.

### 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.

### 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.

### 2014

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

### 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.