CAREER: Modeling the Longitudinal Career Pathways of Engineering Doctorates by Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Discipline

多样化工程博士生的高级培训对国家的技术创新潜力、满足劳动力需求的能力以及总体繁荣和福利至关重要。了解工程博士的长期职业道路对提高工程博士学生的学术持久性具有重要意义，同时也为博士课程的设计和干预提供信息，帮助博士生为教育、商业、工业和政府的众多职业做好准备。这个综合研究和教育项目考察了个体因素、制度结构和环境背景如何在博士水平上汇聚，以模拟和解释工程博士的纵向职业模式。通过研究性别、种族/民族和工程学科在职业道路上是否存在差异，本研究项目将为各种应用提供重要的背景信息，例如制定工程劳动力政策，制定促进工程劳动力竞争力的战略，以及加强学术与行业合作伙伴关系的方法。研究结果将为博士课程提供关键和可操作的信息，以发展和加强考虑劳动力需求和学生职业偏好现实的培训。理论方法强调个人在性别、种族/民族和工程学科交叉点的经验，而不是将个人聚集在一个单一的群体中，或将工程与科学、技术和数学领域结合起来。在社会认知职业、生命历程和交叉性理论的指导下，这项对工程博士毕业生长期职业模式的综合研究侧重于识别就业模式和转变，作为重要人口特征和博士教育经历的函数，使用具有全国代表性的数据进行定量回归分析。通过个人访谈，本研究项目还将查明博士毕业生为何追求某些职业道路，并说明他们的个人选择如何与制度和环境因素交叉。该研究项目还包括一个强大的传播策略，旨在对包括学术、专业、学生服务协会和行业在内的社区产生广泛而有意义的影响。具体地说，该研究项目包括一项计划，利用综合案例研究和视频短片的方法发展一个专业发展讲习班，为工程博士生和早期职业博士提供长期职业规划的工具和培训。

The advanced training of diverse engineering doctoral students is critical to the nation's potential for technological innovation, ability to meet workforce demands, and general prosperity and welfare. An understanding of the longer-term career paths of engineering PhDs has important implications for increasing academic persistence among engineering doctoral students, as well as informing the design of PhD programs and interventions to help prepare doctoral students for a multitude of careers in education, business, industry, and government. This integrated research and education project examines how individual factors, institutional structures, and environmental contexts converge at the PhD level to model and explain the longitudinal career patterns of engineering PhDs. By examining whether there are differences in career paths by gender, race/ethnicity, and engineering discipline, this research project will render important contextual information for various applications, such as the creation of engineering workforce policy, development of strategies that promote a competitive engineering workforce, and ways to strengthening academic-industry partnerships. The findings will provide doctoral programs with critical and actionable information for developing and enhancing training that accounts for the realities of workforce demands and student career preferences. The theoretical approach highlights the experiences of individuals at the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, and engineering discipline rather than aggregating individuals in a monolithic group or aggregating engineering with science, technology, and mathematics fields. Informed by social cognitive career, life course, and intersectionality theories, this comprehensive examination of the longer-term career patterns of engineering doctoral graduates focuses on identifying employment patterns and transitions as a function of important demographic characteristics and doctoral education experiences using quantitative regression analyses on nationally-representative data. Through individual interviews, this research project will also pinpoint why doctoral graduates pursued certain career paths and illustrate how their individual choices intersect with institutional and environmental factors. The research project also includes a strong dissemination strategy designed for broad and meaningful impact across communities, including academic, professional, and student services associations, and industry. Specifically, the research project includes a plan for developing a professional development workshop using an integrated case study and video vignette approach to provide engineering doctoral students and early career PhDs with tools and training for longer-range career planning.