EAGER: Investigating and Pinpointing the College Success Factors for First-Generation, Underrepresented College Students in Engineering

EAGER：调查并确定第一代、代表性不足的工程专业大学生的大学成功因素

• 批准号: 1734044
• 负责人: Jessica Smith
• 金额: $ 29.96万
• 依托单位: Colorado School of Mines
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-15 至 2021-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1734044&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Investigating; Pinpointing; College; Success

Students who are the first-generation in their family to attend college are increasingly the spotlight of educational research and reform seeking to broaden the participation of underrepresented students in higher education in general and engineering in particular. While growing research begins to illuminate the challenges these college students face, this research project attempts to break new grounds by making two key interventions. First, the investigators will apply an intersectional lens to understanding how the multiple dimensions that make a person's identity intersect (e.g., socioeconomic class, gender, race, ethnicity, disability, parental status, immigrant status, and rural vs. urban K-12 schooling, etc.) and how this intersection may positively influence the success of first-generation engineering students at various higher education institutional-types. Second, the investigators will take a capabilities approach to study what kinds of opportunities and strategies best support particular kinds of first-generation students, rather than focusing exclusively on their deficiencies and/or treating them as an undifferentiated group. Having this nuanced understanding will provide the foundation for more effective, targeted, and potentially transformative educational reforms to broaden the participation of first-generation students from multiple backgrounds in engineering. By more clearly identifying the factors leading to the success of such students, this research project has the potential to inspire educational transformations in admission decision-making, teaching, advising, and mentoring practices that are all likely to broadening the participation of first-generation students in engineering, especially among women and underrepresented groups in engineering. The investigators will use findings from a pilot ethnographic research on low-income, first-generation students and insights from the growing theoretical and scientific literature on first-generation students to develop a survey that will be given to students and alumni from across the U.S.. This will allow for an intersectional analysis of first-generation students' engineering experiences and the specific variables that contribute to their perseverance and successful entries into the job market and/or graduate school. This project addresses two major limitations of the existing theoretical and scientific research on first-generation students. First, the project will provide between- and within-group comparisons of first-generation students to obtain more nuanced understanding of how multiple factors influence their success in completing engineering degrees and transitioning to the engineering workforce. As the first large-scale intersectional analysis of first-generation student experiences in engineering, the project will add analytic clarity to a field that unevenly considers generational status along with socioeconomic class, race/ethnicity, and gender. It will also advance the literature base by expanding the traditional demographic categories to include those that were salient for students in the preliminary ethnographic research, such as parental or immigrant status. Second, the research will identify if and how opportunities for students to apply their "funds of knowledge" (e.g., developed through their family and work experiences) inside of the engineering curriculum shapes their undergraduate success and graduation transitions. The project's findings will be disseminated to participating institutions, engineering educators at-large, and future generations of first-generation students through faculty and advisors.

作为家庭中上大学的第一代学生，他们越来越成为教育研究和改革的焦点，这些改革旨在扩大未被充分代表的学生在高等教育，特别是工程教育中的参与。虽然越来越多的研究开始阐明这些大学生面临的挑战，但这项研究项目试图通过两项关键干预措施来开辟新的天地。首先，研究人员将使用交叉视角来理解使一个人的身份认同的多个维度是如何交叉的(例如，社会经济阶层、性别、种族、民族、残疾、父母身份、移民身份，以及农村和城市的K-12教育等)。以及这种交集如何对不同类型高等教育机构的第一代工程专业学生的成功产生积极影响。其次，调查人员将采取能力的方法来研究什么样的机会和策略最适合支持特定类型的第一代学生，而不是只关注他们的不足和/或将他们视为一个未分化的群体。对这种细微差别的理解将为更有效、更有针对性、可能具有变革性的教育改革奠定基础，以扩大来自多个工程背景的第一代学生的参与。通过更清楚地确定导致这类学生成功的因素，这项研究项目有可能激发招生决策、教学、咨询和指导实践方面的教育变革，这些都可能扩大第一代学生在工程学领域的参与，特别是在女性和工程学专业代表性不足的群体中。调查人员将利用对低收入第一代学生进行的人种学试点研究的结果，以及越来越多关于第一代学生的理论和科学文献的见解来制定一项调查，并将调查提供给美国各地的学生和校友。这将允许对第一代学生的工程经验和有助于他们坚持不懈和成功进入就业市场和/或研究生院的具体变量进行横向分析。这个项目解决了现有关于第一代学生的理论和科学研究的两个主要局限性。首先，该项目将提供第一代学生群体之间和群体内的比较，以更细致地了解多种因素如何影响他们在完成工程学位和过渡到工程劳动力方面的成功。作为对第一代学生工程经验的首次大规模交叉分析，该项目将为这个不均衡地考虑代际地位以及社会经济阶层、种族/民族和性别的领域增加分析清晰度。它还将扩大传统的人口学类别，以包括那些在初步人种学研究中对学生来说突出的类别，如父母或移民身份，从而推进文献基础。其次，这项研究将确定学生是否以及如何有机会在工程课程中应用他们的“知识基金”(例如，通过他们的家庭和工作经验发展起来的)，从而影响他们的本科成绩和毕业过渡。该项目的发现将通过教师和顾问传播给参与机构、广大工程教育工作者和未来几代第一代学生。

项目成果

Recognizing the funds of knowledge of first‐generation college students in engineering: An instrument development

认识第一代工程大学生的知识储备：仪器开发

• DOI: 10.1002/jee.20410
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Journal of Engineering Education
• 影响因子: 3.4
• 作者: Verdín, Dina;Smith, Jessica M.;Lucena, Juan C.
• 通讯作者: Lucena, Juan C.

Classroom Practices that Support Minoritized Engineering Students’ Sense of Belonging

支持少数工科学生的课堂实践——归属感

• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education
• 作者: Rainey, Arielle;Verdín, Dina;Smith, Jessica
• 通讯作者: Smith, Jessica

Broadening Participation of First-Generation College Students in Engineering – Backgrounds, Experiences and Strategies for Success

扩大第一代大学生对工程的参与 — 成功的背景、经验和策略

• 发表时间: 2019
• 期刊: Review & directory - American Society for Engineering Education
• 作者: Smith, Jessica M.;Verdin, Dina;Lucena, Juan
• 通讯作者: Lucena, Juan

Funds of Knowledge as Pre-College Experiences that Promote Minoritized Students’ Interest, Self-Efficacy Beliefs, and Choice of Majoring in Engineering

作为大学预科经历的知识基金，可促进少数民族学生的兴趣、自我效能信念和工程专业选择

• DOI: 10.7771/2157-9288.1281
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER
• 作者: Verdín, Dina;Smith, Jessica M;Lucena, Juan
• 通讯作者: Lucena, Juan

The Influence of Connecting Funds of Knowledge to Beliefs about Performance, Classroom Belonging, and Graduation Certainty for First-Generation College Students

将知识储备与对第一代大学生的表现、课堂归属感和毕业确定性的信念联系起来的影响

• DOI: 10.18260/1-2--35343
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: American Society for Engineering Education
• 作者: Verdín, Dina;Smith, Jessica;Lucena, Juan.
• 通讯作者: Lucena, Juan.