Collaborative Research: Research Initiation: Factors Affecting Underrepresented Minority Student Success and Pathways to Engineering Careers at Majority and Minority Institutions

合作研究：研究启动：影响少数族裔学生成功的因素以及在多数和少数族裔院校的工程职业道路

• 批准号: 1640553
• 负责人: Lesley Berhan
• 金额: $ 12.39万
• 依托单位: University of Toledo
• 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: 2016-10-01 至 2019-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1640553&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Initiation; Factors; Affecting

This project is motivated by the need to develop practical strategies for broadening the participation of African American students in engineering. While inadequate college preparation is a contributing factor in the low enrollment and poor retention and graduation rates among underrepresented students in engineering programs, there is evidence that professional persistence is directly linked to identity development and social and academic interactions. For students from underrepresented groups in STEM at both Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs), it is generally recognized that social capital in the form of familial, peer and mentor support is critical to persistence in their major field of study. However, the role that embedded networks within student groups in general and minority engineering affinity groups in particular play in engineering students' identity formation and academic success is not well understood. It is also not clear how other factors including institutional support and the attitudes and beliefs of faculty and staff toward underrepresented minority students affect the ability of these students to integrate into the social and academic systems at their institutions and how these factors influence the formation and development of their identities as engineers. The influence of these factors will be investigated in this project. The insight gained into the factors affecting the social and academic survival of students at PWIs and HBCUs from the psychological and anthropological perspective proposed will potentially lead to new approaches and pathways to broadening participation and improving the success of underrepresented minority students in engineering.The central objective of this interdisciplinary, interinstitutional research initiation project is to conduct a comparative study of the factors affecting the success and pathways to engineering careers of underrepresented minority students at the University of Toledo (a Predominantly White Institution (PWI)) and Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (a Historically Black University). Specifically, the comparative investigation will focus on three areas: 1. The attitudes and beliefs of faculty and staff toward underrepresented students and how these attitudes influence their classroom, and advising interactions and expectations, and the impact they have on the students' sense of belonging and academic success; 2. The existing institutional support mechanisms at both institutions and students' perceptions of their efficacy and the role they perceive these mechanisms play in their academic success; and 3. The influence of student organizations - specifically underrepresented Minority engineering affinity groups and the embedded networks therein on the social and academic integration of African American students at the two types of institutions. The study will be embedded in the existing literature on faculty/teacher expectations of their students, the dual process model of attitude-to-behavior processes, and achievement goal motivation theory to examine faculty implicit attitudes, students perceptions of and feelings about the institution and program, and their academic and social outcomes. Multiple sources and multiple methodologies will be used to capture the experiences of engineering students in PWI and HBCU universities, including focus-group interviews, structured and open- ended surveys, social network analysis, as well as the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The IAT will be used to assess biases that faculty may be unwilling to explicitly express because of normative pressure or because they are repressed as they conflict with an egalitarian self-image. The IAT, which uses response competition designed to measure attitudes indirectly, has been widely applied to study implicit biases against a variety of outgroups (e.g., race and gender), but has not previously been applied in the engineering education context. The results will be used to identify areas where existing practices might be improved, and to inform the design of programs and intervention strategies to improve the success of underrepresented students in engineering at both types of institutions.

该项目的动机是需要制定切实可行的战略，扩大非裔美国学生在工程的参与。虽然大学准备不足是造成工程专业学生入学率低、保留率和毕业率低的一个因素，但有证据表明，专业持久性与身份发展以及社会和学术互动直接相关。对于来自STEM中代表性不足的群体的学生，无论是历史上的黑人学院和大学（HBCU）还是以白色为主的机构（PWI），人们普遍认为，以家庭，同伴和导师支持形式存在的社会资本对于坚持他们的主要研究领域至关重要。然而，学生群体内部的嵌入式网络，特别是少数族裔工程亲和力群体，在工程专业学生身份形成和学术成功中所发挥的作用还没有得到很好的理解。目前还不清楚其他因素，包括机构支持和教师和工作人员对代表性不足的少数民族学生的态度和信念如何影响这些学生融入其机构的社会和学术体系的能力，以及这些因素如何影响他们作为工程师的身份的形成和发展。本项目将研究这些因素的影响。从心理学和人类学的角度提出的影响PWI和HBCU学生社会和学术生存的因素的洞察力将可能导致新的方法和途径，以扩大参与和改善代表性不足的少数民族学生在工程方面的成功。一个跨机构的研究启动项目是进行比较研究的因素影响的成功和途径，以工程职业的代表性不足的少数民族学生在托莱多大学（主要是白色机构（PWI））和亚拉巴马农业和机械大学（历史上的黑人大学）。具体而言，比较研究将集中在三个方面：1。教师和工作人员对代表性不足的学生的态度和信念，以及这些态度如何影响他们的课堂，并建议互动和期望，以及他们对学生的归属感和学业成功的影响; 2。两所院校现有的院校支援机制，以及学生对其效能的看法，以及他们认为这些机制在学业成功方面所扮演的角色;及学生组织的影响-特别是代表性不足的少数民族工程亲和团体和嵌入式网络，其中对非裔美国学生在两种类型的机构的社会和学术融合。本研究将嵌入现有的文献教师/教师的期望，他们的学生，态度行为过程的双过程模型，和成就目标动机理论，以检查教师的内隐态度，学生的看法和感受的机构和计划，他们的学术和社会成果。多个来源和多种方法将用于捕捉PWI和HBCU大学工程专业学生的经验，包括焦点小组访谈，结构化和开放式调查，社交网络分析，以及内隐联想测试（IAT）。IAT将被用来评估偏见，教师可能不愿意明确表达，因为规范的压力，或者因为他们被压抑，因为他们与平等主义的自我形象冲突。IAT使用反应竞争来间接测量态度，已被广泛应用于研究对各种外群体的内隐偏见（例如，种族和性别），但以前没有在工程教育背景下应用。结果将被用来确定现有的做法可能会得到改善的领域，并告知方案和干预策略的设计，以提高在这两种类型的机构工程代表性不足的学生的成功。

项目成果

Belongingness Uncertainty: A Comparative Study of African-American Engineering Students’ Experiences at PWI and HBCU

归属感不确定性：非裔美国工科学生在 PWI 和 HBCU 经历的比较研究

• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Annual meeting program American Educational Research Association
• 作者: Kumar, Revathy;McKether, Willie;Adams, Aaron
• 通讯作者: Adams, Aaron

Comparative Study of the Intersection of Engineering Identify and Black Identity of African-American Engineering Students at a PWI and an HBCU

PWI 和 HBCU 非洲裔美国工程学生工程身份与黑人身份交集的比较研究

• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: ASEE annual conference & exposition
• 作者: Berhan, L.;Kumar, R.;Goodloe, M.;Jones, J.;Adams, A.
• 通讯作者: Adams, A.

Social Networks Analysis of African American Engineering Students at a PWI and an HBCU – A Comparative Study

PWI 和 HBCU 非洲裔美国工程专业学生的社交网络分析 — 比较研究

• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: ASEE annual conference exposition proceedings
• 作者: Berhan, Lesley M;Adams, Aaron L;McKether, Willie L;Kumar, Revathy
• 通讯作者: Kumar, Revathy

Comparative Study of the Effect of Numerical Majority and Non-majority Status on the Intersection of Professional and Cultural Identity of African American Engineering Students

人数多数与非多数地位对非裔美国工科学生职业与文化认同交集影响的比较研究

• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: 2018 CoNECD - The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity Conference
• 作者: Berhan, L.;Kumar, R.;Adams, A.;Goodloe, M.;Jones, J.;McKether, W.
• 通讯作者: McKether, W.