Collaborative Research: Research Initiation: Factors Affecting Underrepresented Minority Student Success and Pathways to Engineering Careers at Majority and Minority Institutions

合作研究：研究启动：影响少数族裔学生成功的因素以及在多数和少数族裔院校的工程职业道路

• 批准号: 1640553
• 负责人: Lesley Berhan
• 金额: $ 12.39万
• 依托单位: University of Toledo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-10-01 至 2019-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1640553&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Initiation; Factors; Affecting

This project is motivated by the need to develop practical strategies for broadening the participation of African American students in engineering. While inadequate college preparation is a contributing factor in the low enrollment and poor retention and graduation rates among underrepresented students in engineering programs, there is evidence that professional persistence is directly linked to identity development and social and academic interactions. For students from underrepresented groups in STEM at both Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs), it is generally recognized that social capital in the form of familial, peer and mentor support is critical to persistence in their major field of study. However, the role that embedded networks within student groups in general and minority engineering affinity groups in particular play in engineering students' identity formation and academic success is not well understood. It is also not clear how other factors including institutional support and the attitudes and beliefs of faculty and staff toward underrepresented minority students affect the ability of these students to integrate into the social and academic systems at their institutions and how these factors influence the formation and development of their identities as engineers. The influence of these factors will be investigated in this project. The insight gained into the factors affecting the social and academic survival of students at PWIs and HBCUs from the psychological and anthropological perspective proposed will potentially lead to new approaches and pathways to broadening participation and improving the success of underrepresented minority students in engineering.The central objective of this interdisciplinary, interinstitutional research initiation project is to conduct a comparative study of the factors affecting the success and pathways to engineering careers of underrepresented minority students at the University of Toledo (a Predominantly White Institution (PWI)) and Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (a Historically Black University). Specifically, the comparative investigation will focus on three areas: 1. The attitudes and beliefs of faculty and staff toward underrepresented students and how these attitudes influence their classroom, and advising interactions and expectations, and the impact they have on the students' sense of belonging and academic success; 2. The existing institutional support mechanisms at both institutions and students' perceptions of their efficacy and the role they perceive these mechanisms play in their academic success; and 3. The influence of student organizations - specifically underrepresented Minority engineering affinity groups and the embedded networks therein on the social and academic integration of African American students at the two types of institutions. The study will be embedded in the existing literature on faculty/teacher expectations of their students, the dual process model of attitude-to-behavior processes, and achievement goal motivation theory to examine faculty implicit attitudes, students perceptions of and feelings about the institution and program, and their academic and social outcomes. Multiple sources and multiple methodologies will be used to capture the experiences of engineering students in PWI and HBCU universities, including focus-group interviews, structured and open- ended surveys, social network analysis, as well as the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The IAT will be used to assess biases that faculty may be unwilling to explicitly express because of normative pressure or because they are repressed as they conflict with an egalitarian self-image. The IAT, which uses response competition designed to measure attitudes indirectly, has been widely applied to study implicit biases against a variety of outgroups (e.g., race and gender), but has not previously been applied in the engineering education context. The results will be used to identify areas where existing practices might be improved, and to inform the design of programs and intervention strategies to improve the success of underrepresented students in engineering at both types of institutions.

该项目的激励是出于开发实用策略来扩大非裔美国学生参与工程学的动机。尽管大学准备不足是在工程课程中代表不足的学生中的入学人数低，保留率和毕业率不佳的因素，但有证据表明，专业持久性与身份发展以及社会和学术互动直接相关。对于来自历史悠久的黑人学院和大学（HBCUS）和主要是白人机构（PWI）的STEM中代表性不足的学生（PWIS）的学生，人们普遍认识到，以家族，同伴和导师支持的形式的社会资本对于在其主要研究领域的坚持至关重要。但是，在工程学生的身份形成和学术上的成功中，将网络嵌入学生群体中的角色尤其是在研究中发挥的作用。还不清楚其他因素如何在机构支持不足的少数族裔学生中的态度以及教职员工的态度和信念会影响这些学生在机构中融入社会和学术系统的能力，以及这些因素如何影响他们作为工程师身份的形成和发展。这些因素的影响将在该项目中研究。从心理和人类学的角度来看，影响学生在普威斯和HBCU的社会和学术生存的因素中获得的洞察力将有可能导致新的方法和途径扩大参与并改善占主导地位不足的少数派学生在工程中的中心目标的核心研究培训的中心目标，从而影响了跨学科的研究，以实现跨学科的研究，以实现对跨学科的研究，以实现对跨学科的研究，以实现对跨学科的研究，以实现对跨学科的研究，以实现对跨学科的研究。托莱多大学（主要是白人机构（PWI））和阿拉巴马州农业和机械大学（历史悠久的黑人大学）的代表人数不足的少数族裔学生。具体而言，比较调查将重点关注三个领域：1。教师和教职员工对代表性不足的学生的态度和信念，以及这些态度如何影响他们的课堂，并为互动和期望提供建议，以及他们对学生的归属感和学术成功的影响； 2。机构的现有机构支持机制和学生对其功效的看法以及他们认为这些机制在其学术成功中起着的作用；和3。学生组织的影响 - 特别是代表性不足的少数族裔工程亲和力小组以及其中的嵌入式网络对两种类型的机构中非洲裔美国学生的社会和学术融合的影响。这项研究将嵌入有关学生对学生的教师/教师期望的现有文献中，态度到行为过程的双重过程模型以及成就目标动机理论，以研究教师的内在态度，学生对机构和计划以及他们的学术和社会成果的认识以及对机构和计划的看法。多种来源和多种方法将用于捕获PWI和HBCU大学的工程学生的经验，包括焦点组访谈，结构化和开放性的调查，社交网络分析以及隐式协会测试（IAT）。 IAT将用于评估教师可能不愿意明确表达的偏见，因为它们与平等主义的自我形象相抵触，因此由于它们被压制而受到压制。 IAT使用旨在间接衡量态度的响应竞争，已广泛应用于研究对各种外来组（例如种族和性别）的隐性偏见，但以前尚未在工程教育环境中应用。结果将用于确定可以改善现有实践的领域，并为计划和干预策略的设计提供信息，以改善这两种机构在工程学中代表性不足的学生的成功。

项目成果

Belongingness Uncertainty: A Comparative Study of African-American Engineering Students’ Experiences at PWI and HBCU

归属感不确定性：非裔美国工科学生在 PWI 和 HBCU 经历的比较研究

• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Annual meeting program American Educational Research Association
• 作者: Kumar, Revathy;McKether, Willie;Adams, Aaron
• 通讯作者: Adams, Aaron

Comparative Study of the Intersection of Engineering Identify and Black Identity of African-American Engineering Students at a PWI and an HBCU

PWI 和 HBCU 非洲裔美国工程学生工程身份与黑人身份交集的比较研究

• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: ASEE annual conference & exposition
• 作者: Berhan, L.;Kumar, R.;Goodloe, M.;Jones, J.;Adams, A.
• 通讯作者: Adams, A.

Social Networks Analysis of African American Engineering Students at a PWI and an HBCU – A Comparative Study

PWI 和 HBCU 非洲裔美国工程专业学生的社交网络分析 — 比较研究

• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: ASEE annual conference exposition proceedings
• 作者: Berhan, Lesley M;Adams, Aaron L;McKether, Willie L;Kumar, Revathy
• 通讯作者: Kumar, Revathy

Comparative Study of the Effect of Numerical Majority and Non-majority Status on the Intersection of Professional and Cultural Identity of African American Engineering Students

人数多数与非多数地位对非裔美国工科学生职业与文化认同交集影响的比较研究

• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: 2018 CoNECD - The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference
• 作者: Berhan, L.;Kumar, R.;Adams, A.;Goodloe, M.;Jones, J.;McKether, W.
• 通讯作者: McKether, W.