Supporting Belonging in Software Engineering Through Role Models Exposure

Ronnie de Souza Santos

arxiv: 2604.25099 · v1 · submitted 2026-04-28 · 💻 cs.SE

Supporting Belonging in Software Engineering Through Role Models Exposure

Ronnie de Souza Santos This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-05-07 16:21 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification 💻 cs.SE

keywords software engineering educationrole modelssense of belongingautoethnographyinclusivitydiversity in computingpedagogical practice

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The pith

Embedding brief historical role models into software engineering lectures supports student belonging without altering technical content or assessments.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The paper describes an instructor's experience adding short, topic-linked mentions of diverse pioneers to standard software engineering lectures across several semesters. These additions are kept brief and aligned with the day's technical material so that learning goals and exams stay unchanged. The approach treats representation as part of the disciplinary history rather than an add-on, aiming to make students feel the field includes people like them. A reader would care because the method requires little extra preparation or curriculum redesign while addressing a persistent challenge in computing education.

Core claim

By incorporating brief, topic-aligned contextualizations of historically grounded pioneers into core technical lectures, the integration functions as a low-disruption pedagogical practice that aligns representation with disciplinary substance and situates diverse contributors as foundational to the development of software architecture.

What carries the argument

Analytic autoethnography based on reflective memos and instructional artifacts that tracks iterative refinement of role-model contextualizations across multiple course offerings.

If this is right

The method preserves existing learning objectives and assessments while adding representation.
Iterative adjustments across semesters can strengthen topic alignment and instructional flow.
Diverse contributors are positioned as part of the technical foundations rather than external to them.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

Instructors in related technical fields could test similar brief contextualizations with their own historical figures.
Direct student feedback collected at the end of a term would provide a clearer test than instructor reflection alone.
The approach could be adapted to large lecture formats or online courses by preparing reusable short segments.

Load-bearing premise

That the instructor's reflective memos and instructional artifacts accurately capture improvements in students' sense of belonging without direct measures of student experience or controlled comparison.

What would settle it

A controlled comparison of validated belonging surveys from students in otherwise identical sections taught with and without the embedded role-model contextualizations.

read the original abstract

Role models are widely discussed in educational research as influential in students identity development and sense of belonging, yet less attention has been given to how role model visibility can be systematically embedded within everyday engineering instruction. This paper presents an analytic autoethnographic account of integrating historically grounded role models into routine software engineering teaching practice. Drawing on reflective memos and instructional artifacts across multiple course offerings, we characterize how brief, topic aligned contextualizations of pioneers were incorporated into core technical lectures without altering learning objectives or assessments. The findings indicate that this structurally embedded approach functioned as a low disruption pedagogical practice that aligned representation with disciplinary substance, situating diverse contributors as foundational to the development of software architecture. The integration was iterative and refined across semesters to strengthen topic alignment and instructional flow. These results suggest that embedding historically grounded representation within technical content may serve as a practical mechanism for supporting inclusivity while preserving technical rigor in engineering education.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Desk Editor's Note private letter to a colleague

This is one instructor's reflective account of adding role model mentions to SE lectures, but it offers no student data to support claims about improved belonging.

read the letter

The key point is that this paper reports on one instructor's experience integrating role models into routine software engineering teaching through an autoethnographic lens. It does not include any direct measures from students, so the benefits for belonging remain based on the author's observations alone. On the positive side, the paper provides a solid description of how this was done in practice. The author details embedding brief, topic-aligned contextualizations of pioneers into core lectures on things like software architecture. He kept everything aligned with existing learning objectives and assessments, and refined the approach over multiple course offerings based on his reflections. This gives readers a usable template for trying something similar without major curriculum changes. The limitation is clear from the method. Since the findings come from the same reflective process that created the intervention, there's a built-in circularity. The memos and artifacts document the instructor's choices and perceived classroom dynamics, but they don't capture student experiences directly. Without things like belonging surveys or interviews, it's hard to know if the practice had the intended effect or if other factors were at play. This work is best suited for educators in software engineering or related fields who are interested in low-disruption ways to address inclusivity in their classes. It offers ideas rather than proven results. I recommend putting it through peer review. The practical details are worth sharing, and reviewers could suggest ways to strengthen the claims or clarify the scope of the autoethnography.

Referee Report

2 major / 2 minor

Summary. The paper presents an analytic autoethnographic account of integrating brief, topic-aligned contextualizations of historical pioneers into routine software engineering lectures across multiple course offerings. Using the author's reflective memos and instructional artifacts, it describes how these were embedded into core technical content without altering learning objectives or assessments. The findings characterize this as a low-disruption practice that aligns representation with disciplinary substance, and conclude that embedding historically grounded role models may serve as a practical mechanism for supporting inclusivity while preserving technical rigor in engineering education.

Significance. If the described classroom dynamics and perceived benefits to belonging are confirmed by independent evidence, the work could provide educators with a replicable, minimally invasive strategy for incorporating diversity into technical curricula. It contributes by shifting focus from standalone role-model discussions to systematic embedding within lectures, and the iterative refinement process offers practical implementation insights.

major comments (2)

The central claim that the embedded approach 'functioned as a low disruption pedagogical practice' supporting belonging (Abstract and Findings) rests solely on the author's reflective memos and artifacts. These sources document instructor choices and perceived flow but contain no student-reported data, belonging scales, interviews, or comparison groups, leaving the link to student experience unestablished and vulnerable to projection bias.
The method of analytic autoethnography (Method section) generates findings from the same reflective process used to implement the intervention, creating circularity. No details are provided on how memos were systematically analyzed, how biases were addressed, or how the approach rules out alternative explanations for any observed classroom effects.

minor comments (2)

Provide concrete examples of specific role-model integrations (e.g., which pioneer was paired with which technical topic) to illustrate the claimed 'topic alignment' and instructional flow.
Clarify the number of semesters, course sizes, and exact data collection process for the reflective memos to allow readers to assess the scope of the account.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

2 responses · 1 unresolved

We thank the referee for the constructive feedback on our manuscript. We have reviewed the major comments carefully and agree that revisions are needed to clarify the scope of our claims and to provide greater transparency in the methodological description. Below we respond point by point.

read point-by-point responses

Referee: The central claim that the embedded approach 'functioned as a low disruption pedagogical practice' supporting belonging (Abstract and Findings) rests solely on the author's reflective memos and artifacts. These sources document instructor choices and perceived flow but contain no student-reported data, belonging scales, interviews, or comparison groups, leaving the link to student experience unestablished and vulnerable to projection bias.

Authors: We acknowledge that the study is an analytic autoethnography and contains no direct student data, scales, or comparison groups. The characterizations of low disruption and alignment with belonging are drawn from the instructor's reflective memos and observed instructional flow across semesters. In the revised manuscript we will edit the abstract and findings sections to frame these observations explicitly as instructor-perceived outcomes rather than established effects on students. We will also insert a limitations paragraph stating that the work does not provide empirical evidence of changes in student belonging and that such evidence would require separate data collection. These changes will prevent overstatement while preserving the descriptive value of the account. revision: yes
Referee: The method of analytic autoethnography (Method section) generates findings from the same reflective process used to implement the intervention, creating circularity. No details are provided on how memos were systematically analyzed, how biases were addressed, or how the approach rules out alternative explanations for any observed classroom effects.

Authors: We agree that the Method section requires expansion. In the revision we will add a subsection detailing the analytic autoethnography procedures: the timeline and structure of memo writing, the thematic coding process applied to memos and artifacts, and reflexive practices used to surface and document potential biases (including iterative peer discussion of emerging themes). We will also note that the intertwined nature of data generation and intervention is inherent to the method, but that systematic documentation and cross-semester comparison provide some analytic distance. Finally, we will state that the single-instructor design precludes ruling out alternative explanations and identify this as a boundary condition for future empirical work. revision: yes

standing simulated objections not resolved

The manuscript cannot supply student-reported data, belonging scales, interviews, or comparison groups because no such data were collected; addressing this would require an entirely different empirical study design.

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No significant circularity in the derivation chain

full rationale

The paper presents an analytic autoethnographic account of embedding role models in software engineering teaching, with findings drawn interpretively from the author's reflective memos and instructional artifacts across course offerings. No mathematical derivations, predictions, fitted parameters, or first-principles results are claimed that reduce to the inputs by construction. The central suggestion—that the approach may support inclusivity—is presented as an interpretive outcome of the reflective practice rather than a tautological or self-referential loop. No self-citations, uniqueness theorems, or ansatzes are invoked in a load-bearing way that creates circularity. This is a standard self-contained qualitative description for the methodology employed.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 2 axioms · 0 invented entities

The claim rests on the premise that brief historical contextualizations influence belonging and that the author's reflections reliably document this effect; no new entities or fitted parameters are introduced.

axioms (2)

domain assumption Role models are influential in students' identity development and sense of belonging
Invoked in the opening sentence as widely discussed in educational research.
domain assumption Brief topic-aligned contextualizations can be added to lectures without altering learning objectives or assessments
Described as the core of the embedded practice across multiple semesters.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5439 in / 1304 out tokens · 57966 ms · 2026-05-07T16:21:56.201149+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

Reference graph

Works this paper leans on

2 extracted references · 2 canonical work pages

[1]

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK This paper presented an analytic autoethnographic account of the systematic integration of historically grounded role models within core software engineering instruction across undergraduate and graduate courses. Drawing on reflective memos and instructional artifacts, we characterized how embedding brief, topic-aligned pioneer...

work page 2021
[2]

Carolyn Ellis, Tony E Adams, and Arthur P Bochner. 2011. Autoethnography: an overview. Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung (2011), 273–290. [6] Jessica R Gladstone and Andrei Cimpian. 2021. Which role models are effective for which students? A systematic review and four recommendations for maximizing the effectiveness of role models i...

work page 2011

[1] [1]

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK This paper presented an analytic autoethnographic account of the systematic integration of historically grounded role models within core software engineering instruction across undergraduate and graduate courses. Drawing on reflective memos and instructional artifacts, we characterized how embedding brief, topic-aligned pioneer...

work page 2021

[2] [2]

Carolyn Ellis, Tony E Adams, and Arthur P Bochner. 2011. Autoethnography: an overview. Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung (2011), 273–290. [6] Jessica R Gladstone and Andrei Cimpian. 2021. Which role models are effective for which students? A systematic review and four recommendations for maximizing the effectiveness of role models i...

work page 2011