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; 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.

该项目将通过突出一组学位和受过训练的工人的学术途径，黑人工程技术（ET）毕业生，在围绕既定的多样性，公平和工程专业的包容性目标上都被忽视，这将有助于发展更多样化的工程劳动力。尽管ET毕业生经常与工程师一起工作，并且他们的入门级职位描述之间可能几乎没有区别，但由于他们选择的学位路径，许多人在等级工程领域的职业发展障碍。此外，与工程相比，某些工程技术计划中的黑人学生数量不成比例，直接影响了黑人学生的数量，而黑人学生的数量后来经常进入工程专业人士，工程研究职业和行业领导地位。这项研究将通过焦点小组访谈和调查以黑色ET学生的声音，经验和知识为中心，以深入了解导致他们所选择的专业以及ET中黑人学生的经验的因素。该项目还将比较协作机构的工程和ET计划，并检查某些工程专业的专业是否比其他工程专业更容易获得，以及黑人学生是否比其他工程专业更集中在某些ET专业的专业中。这项工作的总体目标是有助于对ET不足研究的系统性和结构性障碍的识别和消除。长期目标是研究结果将用于为干预和政策变化提供信息。与工程学相比，研究ET中的黑人学生比例高的原因将揭示黑人学生必须导航的复杂社会地形，以应对教育的结构性障碍，以达到大学的大学学位，并具体达到了与工程相关的学位，具体是专门的专业福利。该项目的具体研究问题如下：1。高中公民，大学公民/招聘人员以及教师在黑人学生对ET与工程的选择中扮演什么角色？ 2。影响黑人学生对工程的承认的学术和结构性障碍是什么？ 3。在本科课程期间，可以使黑人学生从ET到工程（反之亦然）的结构障碍和负担能力是什么？ 4。黑人ET学生如何看待他们未来的职业机会？ 5。黑人ET学生在多大程度上认同工程和/或ET域，这与刻板印象威胁和对该计划的归属感有何关系？ 6.学生对ET经历的看法以及对这些经验的解释与他们的自我骗局有关，包括他们对成功，个人，文化和专业身份的期望以及他们的职业目标？该项目将通过研究这些复杂性如何影响学生选择并建议减少其影响的解决方案，从而有助于发展更多样化的STEM劳动力。这项协作项目是通过STEM教育计划（EDU种族平等）的种族公平资金来资助的。该计划支持研究和实践项目，这些项目研究了对种族资产的考虑如何改善科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）教育和劳动力。授予的项目旨在将个人，社区和机构的声音，知识和经验集中在STEM企业中最受系统性不平等影响。该计划与NSF的核心价值保持一致，即支持来自全国各种人口群体，地区和组织类型的杰出研究人员和创新思想家。 EDU的计划向种族平等计划捐款，以表彰其项目与该局四个部门的集体研究和发展的一致性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响来通过评估来支持的。