Collaborative Research: Supporting the Whole Student: Identifying and Mitigating Barriers to Persistence for Underserved Post-Traditional Engineering Students

合作研究：支持整个学生：识别和减轻服务不足的后传统工程学生的坚持障碍

• 批准号: 2321391
• 负责人: Haiying Long
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc
• 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: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2321391&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Supporting; Whole; Student

While there has been important research on improving retention for Black, Latinx, and economically disadvantaged students in engineering, these studies typically do not account for factors associated with being a post-traditional student. Traditional students are 18-24, First Time in College, enrolled full-time, and reside on campus. On the other hand, post-traditional students can be identified with one or more of the following factors: being 25 years of age or older, enrolled part-time, working to support oneself or family, and/or a commuter student. Consideration of these factors is important both because they add significant complexities for a population that is already underserved in engineering (i.e., Black, Latinx, and economically disadvantaged learners), and because post-traditional undergraduates now comprise the majority of students in colleges and universities. This population shift has given rise to a new term in higher education literature for this group: “Post-traditional” students. “Post-traditional” instead of “non-traditional” acknowledges that this population now represents a new normal and that these undergraduates are no longer an aberration. Aligned with the NSF Broadening Participation in Engineering goals and target demographics, along with these population changes in higher education, a shift is needed to understand how post-traditional factors impact Black, Latinx, and economically disadvantaged students. This project will collect and analyze data on underserved post-traditional engineering undergraduates from three racially and ethnically contrasting institutions. The project will have wide implications; post-traditional students are in all institutions and need creative support, and their needs are known if no one asks. This research will take a transformative approach to not only understand those needs but also position faculty and staff to partner with students to find solutions. This should lead to novel programs and policies that the engineering community can implement as well as evaluate in future studies. Resources and findings will be disseminated with institutional partners such as American Society for Engineering Education and American Council on Education to ensure findings are both widely understood and implemented.The goals of this transformative cyclical mixed methods research study will be two-fold. First, seek to understand factors that impact the retention and persistence of underserved post-traditional undergraduates in engineering. Second, aim to identify strategies that engineering programs can implement to be more inclusive of and responsive to these students’ needs. Motivated by these goals, the following research questions will be answered: 1) What factors impact underserved post-traditional students’ retention in engineering? (Quantitative); and 2) What are underserved post-traditional students’ experiences and perspectives regarding their persistence in pursuit of four-year engineering degrees? (Qualitative). The study is informed by the Model of Co-Curricular Support (MCCS) in engineering education, the students-as-partners conceptual model, and intersectionality. This three-year study will be conducted across three racially and ethnically different institutions: 1) A large public Hispanic-Serving Institution; 2) A small private Historically Black College/University; 3) A large public predominately White institution. A quantitative approach will assemble institutional data sets and collect survey responses from both students and faculty/staff. The multi-phase qualitative research design will consist of focus groups with students to understand their perspectives. It will also involve stakeholder action meetings in which students and faculty/staff work together to collaboratively generate recommendations for policy and practice. A key outcome from this study will be a large dataset on post-traditional learners from these institutions, which will include several more post-traditional variables than are available through the MIDFIELD engineering data file. The dataset will also allow the team and future projects to illuminate differences across student populations depending on the number of post-traditional variables that apply to them.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.

尽管已经有关于改善黑人，拉丁裔和经济不安的工程学生的保留率的重要研究，但这些研究通常并没有说明与传统后学生有关的因素。传统学生是18-24岁，第一次上大学，全职招收，并居住在校园里。另一方面，可以将传统的学生确定为以下一个或多个因素：25岁或以上，兼职，兼职，努力养活自己或家庭和/或通勤学生。考虑这些因素很重要，因为它们为已经在工程学（即黑人，拉丁裔和经济上处于弱势学习者）的人群中增加了重大复杂性，并且因为后传统的本科生现在完成了学院和大学中的大多数学生。这种人口转变已引起了该小组高等教育文献的新术语：“传统后”学生。 “传统后”而不是“非传统”承认，该人群现在代表了一种新的常态，这些本科生不再是畸变。与NSF保持一致，扩大了对工程目标和目标人口的参与，以及这些人口在高等教育中的变化，需要进行转变，以了解传统后因素如何影响黑人，拉丁裔和经济上弱势群体的学生。该项目将收集和分析来自三个大致和种族对比机构的传统后工程本科生的数据。该项目将具有广泛的影响；传统后的学生都在所有机构中，需要创造性的支持，如果没人问，他们的需求是知道的。这项研究将采用一种变革性的方法，不仅了解这些需求，还可以将教职员工与学生合作以找到解决方案。这应该导致工程界可以实施并评估未来研究的新颖计划和政策。资源和发现将与美国工程教育学会和美国教育委员会等机构合作伙伴进行传播，以确保发现发现和实施发现。这项这种变革性周期性混合方法研究的目标将为两倍。首先，寻求了解影响工程后传统后本科生的保留和持久性的因素。其次，旨在确定工程计划可以实施的策略，以使他们更加包含和响应这些学生的需求。在这些目标的促进下，将回答以下研究问题：1）哪些因素影响了传统后学生在工程方面的保留？ （定量）; 2）传统后学生在追求四年工程学位方面的持久性的经验和观点是什么？ （定性）。这项研究由工程教育，学生与派对人的概念模型和交叉性的同学支持模型（MCC）告知。这项为期三年的研究将在三个大致和种族不同的机构中进行：1）一个大型公共西班牙裔公共服务机构； 2）一所小型私人历史悠久的黑人学院/大学； 3）大型公共主要的白人机构。定量方法将组装机构数据集并收集学生和教职员工的调查回复。多阶段定性研究设计将包括与学生了解他们的观点的焦点小组。它还将涉及利益相关者的行动会议，在该会议上，学生和教职员工共同努力为政策和实践提供建议。这项研究的一个关键结果将是从这些机构中获得传统后学习者的大型数据集，该数据集将包含比中场工程数据文件可用的几个传统后变量。该数据集还将允许团队和未来的项目根据适用于他们的传统后变量的数量来阐明学生人群之间的差异。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响标准的评估来通过评估来获得支持。