USING INDIVIDUAL-BASED MODELING TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM OF ENGINEERING

Engineering culture perpetuates norms that are unwelcoming to minoritized identities, particularlywomen and racialized folks. A theory useful for understanding this is “hidden curriculum” whichdescribes the assumptions and beliefs that are unintentionally and implicitly taught in engineeringeducation. This paper outlines an initial conceptual model for using IBM (individual-based modeling) to better understand the hidden curriculum of engineering. We provide an overview of the driving question behind the model design, the agents and their attributes, the rules andprocesses which change these attributes, and the scale of the model. This overview of the model building process provides insight into the model design for simulating and better understanding the perpetuation of the hidden curriculum within engineering education.