Elementary school students' conceptions of engineers: A drawing analysis study in Taiwan

This study investigated elementary school students' conceptions of engineers by conducting the Chinese-version of the Draw-an-Engineer Test (CDET) in classrooms. A mixed methods research methodology was adopted for achieving the research objective. In the quantitative part of this study, a content analysis method was used for analyzing students' drawing contents; in the qualitative part, a phenomenology approach was employed for collecting interview data. A total of 750 Taiwanese students voluntarily participated in the study. Quantitative findings showed the presence of gender stereotypes of engineers, specific types of engineers, and major conceptions of engineers in the drawings. Qualitative findings indicated that family members and mass media strongly influenced students' conceptions. Overall, most findings were supported by previous research results. However, the information on the proportion of stereotypes, types, and conceptions of engineers was unique to the current study.