Research Initiation: Engineering a Culture of Engagement

研究启动：营造参与文化

• 批准号: 1544147
• 负责人: Brock LaMeres
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Montana State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1544147&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Research; Initiation; Engineering; Culture; Engagement

This project aims to change the value system of college students to view engineering as a profession that serves the public good. It has been shown that underrepresented minorities, especially women and first generation college students gravitate toward professions that are viewed as serving their communities and helping others. While engineering certainly does serve public good, the common perception of the engineering profession is one that promotes self-oriented values such as wealth and personal success. This perception has a far reaching impact when trying to understand how students choose to become engineers, limiting the number of incoming college students that see engineering as a viable career. It also decreases the motivation of existing students to persist to graduation once in a degree program. And ultimately, it limits the number of underrepresented minorities that choose to stay in the engineering profession once in the workforce. By changing the culture surrounding engineering to one that promotes how engineering serves the public good, a larger and more diverse engineering workforce can be formed. In this project the research team focuses on a specific cultural phenomenon in which existing engineering students have less concern over time about how important it is that engineering serves the public good. This research explores the unique approach of "adding value" to engineering through targeted interventions to reverse the phenomenon of disengagement to create a culture that views engineering as a profession that helps others.The overall objective of this project is to initiate boundary-spanning research on how to transform a culture of disengagement into a culture of engagement that ultimately enhances the professional formation of engineers. This research will produce original data to understand why engineering students show less and less concern over time for how engineering contributes to public welfare. This project is the first to initiate a comprehensive research project specifically on Utility Value Theory with the long-term goal of changing the value system surrounding engineering to one that has prosocial, communal value. Creating a culture that considers engineering as a profession that serves the public good will attract a diverse population to engineering, fostering increased innovation for the next century. To accomplish the primary project objective, this project has two aims: 1) facilitate the professional development of an engineering faculty through collaborations with a social psychological scientist in order to 2) change the value system of engineering to include prosocial "engagement". The long term plan for this research (5 years) is to design and test the effectiveness of a large scale intervention guided by Utility Value Theory to contribute to a long lasting culture of engagement within engineering. The focus of this research initiation project (2 years) is to train an engineering faculty member in the process of social science by focusing on specific research questions testing the scope and process of the culture of disengagement within electrical engineering at Montana State University. The broader impact of this research includes advancing the understanding of how Utility Value Theory motivates the professional formation of engineers while simultaneously promoting the training of an engineering faculty. This research has the potential for great benefit to society by producing engineering graduates that are concerned with the ways in which engineering serves the public good. Students from this culture of engagement will serve as role models that promote engineering as a profession that has prosocial value. By changing the culture surrounding engineering, a more diverse group of students will be attracted to engineering and retained in the workforce, particularly women and 1st generation college students, which will ultimately broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in engineering.

该项目旨在改变大学生的价值体系，将工程视为服务公共利益​​的职业。事实证明，代表性不足的少数群体，尤其是女性和第一代大学生，更倾向于那些被视为服务社区和帮助他人的职业。虽然工程确实服务于公共利益，但工程专业的普遍看法是促进财富和个人成功等自我导向的价值观。当试图了解学生如何选择成为工程师时，这种看法会产生深远的影响，从而限制了将工程视为可行职业的即将入学的大学生的数量。它还降低了现有学生坚持完成学位课程直至毕业的动力。最终，它限制了进入劳动力市场后选择留在工程行业的少数族裔数量。通过将围绕工程的文化转变为促进工程如何为公众利益服务的文化，可以形成一支更大、更多样化的工程队伍。在这个项目中，研究团队专注于一种特定的文化现象，在这种现象中，现有的工程专业学生随着时间的推移越来越不关心工程服务于公共利益的重要性。本研究探索了通过有针对性的干预措施为工程“增加价值”的独特方法，以扭转脱离现象，创造一种将工程视为帮助他人的职业的文化。该项目的总体目标是启动跨界研究，探讨如何将脱离文化转变为参与文化，最终增强工程师的专业形成。这项研究将产生原始数据，以了解为什么工程专业的学生随着时间的推移越来越不关心工程如何为公共福利做出贡献。该项目是第一个专门针对效用价值理论的综合研究项目，其长期目标是将围绕工程的价值体系转变为具有亲社会、公共价值的体系。创建一种将工程学视为服务公共利益​​的职业的文化，将吸引多元化的人群从事工程学，从而促进下个世纪的创新。为了实现主要项目目标，该项目有两个目标：1）通过与社会心理学科学家合作促进工程教师的专业发展，以便 2）改变工程的价值体系以包括亲社会的“参与”。这项研究的长期计划（5 年）是设计和测试以效用价值理论为指导的大规模干预措施的有效性，以促进工程领域的长期参与文化。该研究启动项目（2 年）的重点是通过关注测试蒙大拿州立大学电气工程领域脱离文化的范围和过程的具体研究问题，在社会科学过程中培训工程教员。这项研究的更广泛影响包括增进对效用价值理论如何促进工程师专业形成的理解，同时促进工程教师的培训。这项研究有可能通过培养关注工程服务公共利益​​的工程毕业生来为社会带来巨大利益。来自这种参与文化的学生将成为促进工程作为具有亲社会价值的职业的榜样。通过改变工程文化，更多多元化的学生群体将被工程所吸引并留在劳动力队伍中，特别是女性和第一代大学生，这最终将扩大工程领域代表性不足的群体的参与。