Collaborative Research: Developing Diverse Leadership for Engineering

从各种来源和评论员那里，一系列持续存在的问题对工程专业构成了挑战。从对技术快速进步的担忧到对环境保护的担忧，再到性别、种族公平和代表性的问题，工程专业面临着重大挑战。两种新的教育模式回应了这些职业关切，一是史密斯学院面向女性的项目，坚定地致力于培养对社会责任的承诺，二是新成立的奥林工程学院，专注于将企业家精神与工程技术相结合。史密斯学院开发了一项工程项目，并在奥林建立了一所全新的工程学院，这创造了一个非同寻常的机会，可以通过系统观察来利用可以被视为自然实验的东西。为了控制创新在专业工程教育中的作用，提出了两个步骤：(1)利用二手资料对工程教育中的创新进行系统审查；(2)对麻省理工学院和马萨诸塞大学这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。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大学。使用定量和定性数据，调查人员计划跟踪每所学校的一组学生，了解他们的课堂和大学关系、暑期实习和毕业后立即从事的职业，以建立一个模型，说明这几个项目如何在下一代美国工程师中嵌入或克服性别和种族分层等问题。此外，他们还建议在研究的第一年和第四年的两个时间点与各自机构的关键利益相关者进行访谈。史密斯和奥林的倡议是一个前所未有的机会，可以审查围绕分离主义和男女同校模式的现状、理由和规范，以确保专业的公平和平衡，因此，这是制定有效的工程教育政策的独特机会。例如，它们提供了一个探索工程教育的规范和做法的机会，这些规范和做法阻碍或促进了负责任的变革的创造性领导，包括该专业的性别和种族构成方面的变革。同样，这些举措提供了一个前所未有的机会，来检验关于社会变革的新制度理论和职业发展理论中的重要命题。工程教育两个新项目的同时开设，创造了一个机会，有助于制定有效的工程教育政策，促进公平，并促进社会科学理论的发展。

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.