Collaborative Research: Gateway or Gatekeeper: Understanding Why Black Students Choose Engineering Technology or Engineering, and the Implications of this Choice

合作研究：门户还是看门人：了解黑人学生为何选择工程技术或工程，以及这一选择的含义

• 批准号: 2224766
• 负责人: Lesley Berhan
• 金额: $ 70.75万
• 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: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-06-01 至 2026-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2224766&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Gateway; Gatekeeper; Understanding

This project will contribute to the development of a more diverse engineering workforce by highlighting the academic pathways to and through college of a group of degreed and trained workers, Black Engineering Technology (ET) graduates, who are often overlooked in conversations around the stated diversity, equity, and inclusion goals for the Engineering profession. While ET graduates often work alongside engineers and there may be little distinction between their entry-level job descriptions, many encounter barriers to career advancement in the hierarchical engineering field because of their chosen degree path. In addition, the disproportionately large number of Black students in some engineering technology programs compared to engineering directly impacts the number of Black students who later have the degree credentials often required to enter to the engineering professorate, engineering research careers, and leadership positions in industry. This study will center on the voices, experiences, and knowledge of Black ET students through focus group interviews and surveys in order to gain insight into the factors that led them to their chosen major and their experiences as Black students in ET. The project will also compare the engineering and ET programs at the collaborating institutions and examine whether there are certain engineering majors that are less accessible than others, and whether Black students are concentrated in some ET majors more than others.The overarching goal of this work is to contribute to the identification and removal of systemic and structural barriers and racial inequities in ET undergraduate education. The long-term goal is that the findings of the research will be used to inform interventions and policy changes. Investigating the reasons why there is a disproportionately high percentage of Black students in ET compared to engineering will shed light on the complex social terrain that Black students must navigate to combat the structural barriers in education to achieve an undergraduate college degree generally, and an engineering-related degree specifically, with all of the professional benefits a degree confers. The specific research questions of the project are as follows: 1. What role do high school counselors, college counselors/recruiters, and faculty play in Black students’ choice of ET versus engineering? 2. What are the academic and structural barriers that effect Black students’ admittance to engineering? 3. What are the structural barriers and affordances that enable or prevent Black students to transfer from ET to engineering (and vice versa) from during an undergraduate program? 4. How do Black ET students perceive their future career opportunities? 5. To what extent do Black ET students identify with the Engineering and/or ET domain and how is this related to contextual salience of stereotype threat and belongingness to the program? 6. How do students’ perceptions of their experiences in ET and the interpretation of these experiences relate to their self-schemas including their expectations of success, personal, cultural, and professional identities, and their career goals? This project will contribute to efforts to develop a more diverse STEM workforce by examining how these complexities influence student choice of major and suggesting solutions to lessen their impacts.This collaborative project is funded through the Racial Equity in STEM Education program (EDU Racial Equity). The program supports research and practice projects that investigate how considerations of racial equity factor into the improvement of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce. Awarded projects seek to center the voices, knowledge, and experiences of the individuals, communities, and institutions most impacted by systemic inequities within the STEM enterprise. This program aligns with NSF’s core value of supporting outstanding researchers and innovative thinkers from across the Nation's diversity of demographic groups, regions, and types of organizations. Programs across EDU contribute funds to the Racial Equity program in recognition of the alignment of its projects with the collective research and development thrusts of the four divisions of the directorate.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目将通过强调学术途径和训练有素的工人，黑人工程技术（ET）毕业生的学术途径小组，为开发更多样化的工程发展做出贡献，这些毕业生在围绕所述多样性，公平和包容性目标的对话中被忽视专业人士。经常进入工程专业的IP职位的证书将以焦点小组访谈和调查引导他们所选择的专业和作为黑人学生的经验，以此为中心。在美国东部ET地下教育中的系统性和结构性障碍和种族不平等。结构性障碍o一般获得了Anneergrege学位，并特别是与英语相关的学位，所有专业都在黑人学生选择ET与工程学中扮演的特定研究问题。在安德大学计划期间，黑人学生对工程的障碍（反之亦然）。时间类型的威胁和对计划的归属感。通过研究劳动力学生选择主要的解决方案来减轻影响的劳动力，这是一种合作的劳动力。该协作资助了种族平等的诱因克（EDU种族平等）。授予科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）教育和劳动力的授权，以旨在融合声音，并体验个人，并受到系统不平等的影响。人口群体的多样性和类型的厌恶类型。使用基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响评论标准来支持VALUON。