Engineering education and engineering studies research has clearly articulated a need for educational reform to help new engineers understand social dimensions of their work and act as change agents. At the same time, while some practicing engineers may be committed to systemic change and service to society, they must also contend with work responsibilities which serve corporate interests and constrain change. To highlight tensions between calls for socially just engineering education and the corporate contexts constraining engineering work, this study examines the transition to work for one early career engineer. Drawing on the concept of figured worlds, we examine the under-explored relationship between the agency of individual engineers and the structure of engineering workplace culture. This structure-agency approach guides our narrative analysis of the participant’s early work experience based on five interviews across her first two years of work. Our findings illustrate the need to extend representations of both educational preparation and engineering work by unpacking the complex identity negotiations that individuals experience. In doing so, we also demonstrate the value of both the structure-agency framework and narrative methods for identity researchers in both engineering studies and engineering education.

工程教育和工程研究研究清楚地表明需要进行教育改革，以帮助新工程师了解他们工作的社会层面并充当变革推动者。同时，一些执业工程师在致力于系统变革和服务社会的同时，也必须承担服务于企业利益、制约变革的工作职责。为了强调对社会公正的工程教育的呼吁与限制工程工作的企业环境之间的紧张关系，本研究调查了一名早期职业工程师向工作的过渡。借鉴图形世界的概念，我们研究了个体工程师的代理与工程工作场所文化结构之间未被探索的关系。这种结构-代理方法指导我们根据参与者前两年工作的五次访谈对参与者的早期工作经验进行叙述分析。我们的研究结果表明，需要通过解开个人经历的复杂身份协商来扩展教育准备和工程工作的表示。在这样做的过程中，我们还展示了结构-代理框架和叙事方法对工程研究和工程教育中的身份研究人员的价值。