Research Initiation: Engineering a Culture of Engagement

这个项目旨在改变大学生的价值体系，将工程视为一种服务于公共利益的职业。有证据表明，代表性不足的少数群体，特别是妇女和第一代大学生，倾向于从事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自我导向的价值观，如财富和个人成功。当试图了解学生如何选择成为工程师时，这种看法产生了深远的影响，限制了将工程视为可行职业的新生数量。它也降低了现有学生坚持到毕业一次在学位课程的动机。最终，它限制了代表性不足的少数民族的数量，这些少数民族一旦进入劳动力市场，就选择留在工程专业。通过改变围绕工程的文化，以促进工程如何为公众利益服务，可以形成一个更大，更多样化的工程队伍。在这个项目中，研究小组专注于一个特定的文化现象，现有的工程专业的学生随着时间的推移对工程服务于公共利益的重要性越来越不关心。本研究探讨通过有针对性的干预措施来扭转脱离现象，创造一种将工程视为帮助他人的职业的文化，从而为工程“增值”的独特方法。本项目的总体目标是启动跨边界研究，研究如何将脱离文化转变为参与文化，最终提高工程师的职业形成。这项研究将产生原始数据，以了解为什么随着时间的推移，工程专业的学生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，公共价值的价值体系。创造一种将工程视为服务于公共利益的职业的文化，将吸引不同的人口从事工程，促进下一个世纪的创新。为了实现主要的项目目标，本项目有两个目标：1）通过与社会心理科学家的合作促进工程学院的专业发展，以2）改变工程的价值体系，包括亲社会的“参与”。这项研究的长期计划（5年）是设计和测试效用价值理论指导下的大规模干预的有效性，以促进工程领域的长期参与文化。本研究启动项目（2年）的重点是培养工程教员在社会科学的过程中，侧重于具体的研究问题测试的范围和过程中的脱离电气工程在蒙大拿州立大学。这项研究的更广泛的影响包括推进效用价值理论如何激励工程师的专业形成的理解，同时促进工程学院的培训。这项研究有可能产生工程专业的毕业生，关心工程服务于公众利益的方式，对社会有很大的好处。来自这种参与文化的学生将成为榜样，促进工程作为一个具有亲社会价值的职业。通过改变围绕工程的文化，一个更多样化的学生群体将被吸引到工程和劳动力中，特别是妇女和第一代大学生，这将最终扩大在工程中代表性不足的群体的参与。

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.