GSE/RES- Collaborative Research - Practical Logic of STEM Career Choice: A Critical Interpretive approach to profiling IT Career Pathways of African American Males at HBCUs

智力价值：这项研究的重点是批判性地检查和追踪选择从事IT相关职业的成功的非裔美国男大学生的职业道路。这项研究以皮埃尔·布尔迪厄的权力与实践理论为基础，揭示了非裔美国男性在选择职业生涯以攻读IT相关学科时所使用的实践逻辑。样本包括100名非洲裔美国男性学生，他们表示对IT职业感兴趣，目前就读于历史悠久的黑人学院和大学(HBCU)。还包括以白人为主的机构中的一小部分非裔美国人男性。研究人员使用批判性的解释方法，其中资本、领域和习惯的概念被用作框架，通过关注影响他们追求IT职业生涯决定的团队级别的经历，建立和验证关于这个历史上服务不足的群体与IT接触的中端理论。研究包括以人为中心的分析，有很好的理论基础，并采用严格的定性方法。这项拟议的工作对有限的关于非裔美国人男性学术成功的文献做出了贡献，并有助于澄清目前文献中存在的关于非洲裔美国人男性职业选择的一些混杂和矛盾的发现。更广泛的影响：这项研究的结果揭示了社会结构如何以及哪些社会结构促进或限制了非裔美国人与IT相关的职业选择；这些信息可能对政策制定者、教师和学校辅导员有用，并可能为创新干预措施的创建提供信息。这些发现还可能有助于STEM劳动力的增加，同时扩大非洲裔美国男性的职业选择，他们在历史上受到经济衰退的影响不成比例。这项研究继续了华盛顿州立大学和宾夕法尼亚州立大学之间的合作，并加强了与四个参与的HBCU的持续伙伴关系。

Intellectual Merit: This research study focuses on critically examining and tracing the career pathways of successful African American male college students who have opted to pursue IT-related careers. Grounded in the theory of power and practice posited by Pierre Bourdieu, the study uncovers the practical logics that African American men employ when making career choices to pursue IT-related disciplines. The sample consists of 100 African American male students who have expressed interest in IT careers and who are currently enrolled at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). A small sample of African American men at Predominantly White Institutions is also included. The researchers use a critical interpretive approach in which concepts of capital, field and habitus are employed as a framework to build and verify midrange theories about this historically underserved group's engagement with IT by focusing on group-level experiences that influence their decision to pursue an IT career. The research includes conducting person-centered analysis that is well grounded in theory and employs rigorous qualitative approaches. The proposed work contributes to the limited literature on African American men's academic success and helps clarify some of the mixed and contradictory findings about their career choices that exist in the current literature. Broader Impacts: The results of this research reveal how and which social structures enable or constrain African American men's IT-related career choices; information which may be useful to policy makers, teachers and school counselors, and that may inform the creation of innovative interventions. Findings may also contribute to the increase in the STEM workforce while expanding the career options for African American men who are historically disproportionately affected by economic downturns. The research continues a collaboration between Washington State University and Pennsylvania State University as well as strengthens ongoing partnerships with the four participating HBCUs.