Collaborative Research: Developing Diverse Leadership for Engineering

从各种来源和评论家，一系列持续的问题已经对工程专业提出了挑战。 从关注技术的快速进步到环境保护，再到性别和种族公平和代表性问题，工程专业面临着重要的挑战。 两种新的教育模式是对这些专业问题的回应，史密斯学院的女性专用计划，坚定地致力于培养对社会责任的承诺，以及新的奥林工程学院，专注于将创业与工程相结合。史密斯学院工程课程的发展和奥林工程学院全新的建立创造了一个非凡的机会，通过系统的观察，这可以被看作是一个自然的实验。 要“控”为创新在工程专业教育中的作用，提出两个步骤：（1）利用二手资料，对工程教育的创新进行系统性审查;（2）对其他两个工程项目的学生和其他关键利益相关者进行平行研究，麻省理工学院和马萨诸塞州大学。为了实证检验新制度变革理论与学生发展之间的关系，将在四个地点进行为期六年的小组研究：史密斯学院、奥林工程学院、麻省理工学院和马萨诸塞州大学。 使用定量和定性数据，调查人员计划通过他们的课堂和大学关系，暑期实习和毕业后立即职业来跟踪每所学校的一组学生，以建立一个模型，说明几个项目如何嵌入或克服下一代美国工程师的性别和种族分层。 此外，他们建议在两个时间点，第一年和第四年的研究，在各自的机构进行采访的主要利益相关者史密斯和奥林的倡议构成了一个前所未有的机会，检查的状态，理由和规范，围绕分离主义和男女同校的模式，以确保公平和平衡的专业，因此，一个独特的机会，制定有效的政策，工程教育。 例如，他们提供了一个机会，探讨工程教育的规范和做法，抑制或促进负责任的变化，包括在性别和种族组成的专业转变的创造性领导。 同样，这些倡议提供了一个前所未有的机会，以测试社会变革的新体制理论和专业发展理论中的重要命题。 两个新的工程教育项目的同时开放，为制定有效的工程教育政策创造了机会，以促进公平，并为社会科学理论的发展做出贡献。

From a variety of sources and commentators, a persistent set of issues has posed a challenge to the profession of engineering. From concerns about rapid advances in technology to environmental protection to questions of gender and racial fairness and representation, the profession of engineering faces important challenges. Two new educational models are responsive to these professional concerns, Smith College's woman-only program with a strong commitment to nurturing a commitment to social responsibility and the new Olin College of Engineering with a focus on blending entrepreneurship with engineering.The development of an engineering program at Smith College and the establishment of an entirely new college of engineering at Olin create an extraordinary opportunity to take advantage, by systematically observing, what can be viewed as a natural experiment. To "control" for the role of innovation in professional engineering education, two steps are proposed: (1) the development of a systematic review, using secondary sources, of innovations in engineering education and (2) parallel studies of students and other key stakeholders at two other engineering programs, MIT and the University of Massachusetts.To test empirically the relationship between neo-institutional theories of change and students' development, a six-year panel study will be employed at four sites: Smith College, Olin College of Engineering, MIT and the University of Massachusetts. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, the investigators plan to follow a panel of students at each school through their classroom and college relationships, summer internships, and occupation immediately following graduate to develop a model of how the several programs embed or overcome gendered and racial stratification in the next generation of American engineers, among other issues. Also, they propose to conduct interviews with key stakeholders at the respective institutions at two points in time, year one and four of the study.The Smith and Olin initiatives constitute an unprecedented opportunity to examine the status, rationale, and norms that surround separatist and coeducational models to insure equity and balance in the professions and, as such, a unique opportunity to develop effective policy for engineering education. For example, they offer an opportunity to explore the norms and practices of engineering education that inhibit or promote creative leadership for responsible change, including transformations in the gender and racial composition of the profession. Equally, these initiatives provide an unprecedented opportunity to test important propositions in neo-institutional theories of social change and in theories of professional development. Together, the coincident opening of two new programs in engineering education creates an opportunity to contribute to the development of effective policies for engineering education to enhance equity and to contribute to the development of social science theory.