Diversity Stalled: Explorations into the Stagnant Numbers of African American Engineering Faculty

多样性停滞：对非裔美国工程学院数量停滞的探索

• 批准号: 1361025
• 负责人: Ebony McGee
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Vanderbilt University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-03-01 至 2018-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1361025&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Diversity; Stalled; Explorations; into; Stagnant

A diverse engineering university faculty and workforce are necessary to achieve and maintain a country that is prosperous, secure, and attentive to the technological and social well-being of all individuals. Thus, this research study investigates one of the challenges to a diverse engineering faculty and workforce by exploring the causes behind why African Americans remain one of the most underrepresented racial groups in engineering faculty positions, remaining steady at 2.5% for the past five years, despite intervention programs that aim to broaden the participation of minorities in engineering. This three-year study explores the barriers and opportunities facing a cohort of (1) African American engineering PhD students/candidates/postdocs pursuing engineering faculty careers and (2) current and former African American engineering faculty members. The proposed study examines factors that impact the production of African American PhDs in engineering, as well as those factors that affect the pathway to tenured faculty positions in engineering. This research includes an assessment of the current engineering faculty climate through surveying and interviewing African Americans in engineering, from PhD candidates and postdoctoral students through full professors, including a subset of former African American engineering faculty. This study analyzes the faculty-engineering climate by including the implementation of a national survey for Black PhD engineering students, Black engineering faculty, and a subset of former Black engineering faculty. The PIs will also interview a subset of each of these groups. The methodological and analytical structure of this study is guided by the literature on racial/gender stereotypes and Social Cognitive Career Theory. The intellectual merit of this work should lead to a better understanding of the career trajectories African American PhDs in engineering and the technical, societal, and cultural influences that impact their career decision making. Although this study focuses on African American faculty, overall faculty diversity creates a more effective learning environment. Schools with greater racial diversity tend to have better retention, satisfaction, and intellectual development. The broader impact of this study has the potential to change the model of how engineering candidates of color are mentored and primed for engineering faculty positions.

多样化的工程大学的教职员工和劳动力对于实现和维护一个对所有个人的技术和社会福祉而繁荣，安全和专心的国家都是必要的。因此，这项研究通过探索为什么非裔美国人仍然是工程教师职位上代表性最高的种族群体之一，研究了多元化工程教师和劳动力的挑战之一，尽管有旨在扩大少数群体在工程中的参与计划，但在过去五年中仍保持2.5％的稳定。这项为期三年的研究探讨了（1）（1）个非裔美国工程博士生/候选人/邮政工作人员的障碍和机会，从事工程教师职业，以及（2）现任和前非裔美国人工程教师。拟议的研究研究了影响工程中非裔美国人博士学位的产生的因素，以及那些影响工程教师职位的途径的因素。这项研究包括通过调查和采访工程专业的非洲裔美国人，通过博士候选人和博士后学生通过完整的教授，包括前非裔美国人工程学院的一部分来评估当前工程教师的气候。这项研究通过包括针对黑人博士工程专业学生，黑人工程学院和前黑人工程学院的全国性调查来分析教师工程的气候。 PI还将采访每个组的一个子集。这项研究的方法论和分析结构取决于有关种族/性别刻板印象和社会认知职业理论的文献。这项工作的智力优点应该可以更好地理解工程领域的非裔美国人博士学位以及影响其职业决策的技术，社会和文化影响。尽管这项研究的重点是非裔美国人的教师，但整体教师的多样性却创造了更有效的学习环境。具有更大种族多样性的学校往往具有更好的保留，满意度和智力发展。这项研究的更广泛的影响有可能改变如何指导和培训工程教师职位的工程候选者的模型。