Guest blog: Prof. Roger Penlington BEng PGCertAP PhD FSGT FSEDA SFHEA, Department of Mechanical & Construction Engineering at Northumbria University
Seeking to contact female Engineering staff/students who first studied Engineering using ‘English as a Medium of Education’ (EME)
I’m involved with a research project which is facing some difficulties although these are trivial compared to those of my research partners at this time. The project is British Council funded and looking at the language related barriers to engineering careers of women who have English as a second language and our partners are the Islamic University of Gaza.
As far as we are aware today our colleagues are all alive yet displaced and the university is rubble. This means that two events to close our work have been unable to take place and we are seeking to substitute these with some additional survey data.
This is where we are seeking any assistance you may be able to offer in contacting engineering women, staff and students, who are learning or working in engineering with English as a second language:
- I am looking to contact female Engineering staff/students who first studied Engineering using ‘English as a Medium of Education’ (EME), i.e. who learnt Engineering at university using English, but in a country where the main language wasn’t English. I am particularly looking to contact female engineers from the Global South (what used to be termed the ‘Developing World’).
- The project-team has been doing research with engineers at the Islamic University of Gaza: ‘An EME-focused investigation into barriers facing female engineers”.
- We would like to reach out beyond Palestine to other female engineering staff / students who studied Engineering / a STEM subject at university in a country where English wasn’t the main language.
- If you are a female member of staff with English as an additional language, you probably came into the field via an EME approach. Would you have time to fill in the form, following the link below? It will take 15 minutes.
- Male or female, EME or not, you could still help by sharing the link within your institution, with female engineering students you teach, who have English as a second language and studied via EME at bachelors level, or with staff members from overseas who came into Engineering using EME.
Link to the form:
To access the form, please click here.
Participant Information Sheet for the project:
To view the participant information sheet for the project and learn more about the project, please click here. (Please note to download with Chrome you will need to copy and paste the link into your browser).
Hoping that peace will come to Gaza and Israel very soon, and thanking you for any time you can offer.
Best regards,
Roger