Research: Effects of Perceived Bias on Engineering Identity Development in the Graduate Student Community

研究：感知偏差对研究生社区工程身份发展的影响

• 批准号: 1763288
• 负责人: Elan Hope
• 金额: $ 34.99万
• 依托单位: North Carolina State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-07-01 至 2022-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1763288&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Research; Effects; Perceived; Bias; Engineering

This project seeks to address the high level of attrition from engineering graduate programs. Engineering identity, or how one perceives oneself as an engineer, is strongly tied to persistence in engineering training and practice. The three-year research effort will uncover how graduate engineering students perceive experiences of bias and the effect of perceived bias on their engineering identity. This research will help engineering educators understand the ways that perceived bias impacts engineering identity development and measure perceived bias in a large national sample of engineering graduate students. The project will advance the understanding of the obstacles that confront those with the talent and ability to become engineering professionals. It also aims to recognize the key role that engineering graduate education can play in advancing research and theory about how graduate students perceive biases and the ways in which they do (or do not) develop resiliency that buffers their negative experiences. The focus on graduate-level engineering education promises to enrich a general understanding of how experiences with bias may suppress and divert career aspirations, while at the same time providing insight into the specific circumstances of advanced training in engineering professions for those who are determined to endure.Past research on engineering identity, recruitment, retention, and bias has focused on undergraduate students, leaving little empirical evidence for understanding graduate experiences. In addition, bias research studies STEM fields collectively, whereas we plan to focus specifically on engineering and individual disciplines within engineering. The project is divided into three phases of research, which will: (1) qualitatively explore the lived experiences of minority graduate engineering students' perceived bias and its effect on engineering identity development, via interviews; (2) quantitatively measure the perceived bias experiences and engineering identity of engineering graduate students via a national survey; and (3) qualitatively evaluate the interpretations of data from previous phases and revisit initial participants' experiences of perceived bias using interviews and participant video diary accounts. These three phases of research will be guided by the following research questions: RQ1. How do engineering graduate students conceptualize their own identities, perceive their identities as minority, and experience perceived bias based on those identities and identity intersections? RQ2. How does existing as a minority in a graduate program and experiencing/perceiving bias affect engineering identity? How does intersectional identity affect engineering identity? RQ3. Are there experiences related to engineering identity that mitigate the effects of perceived bias? RQ4. Can existing identities support engineering identity development? If so, how can they be leveraged to support student persistence, performance, and participation? The goal is to generate empirical evidence that will: identify if/how perceived bias disrupts the development of an engineering identity, offer recommendations for best practices for reducing and mitigating bias, and suggest opportunities for bolstering engineering identity in engineering graduate programs and colleges.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目旨在解决工程研究生课程的高水平流失问题。工程身份，或一个人如何看待自己作为一个工程师，是密切相关的坚持工程培训和实践。这项为期三年的研究将揭示工程专业的研究生如何看待偏见的经历，以及偏见对他们工程身份的影响。这项研究将有助于工程教育工作者了解感知偏见影响工程身份发展的方式，并在全国大样本的工程研究生中测量感知偏见。该项目将促进对那些有天赋和能力成为工程专业人士的人所面临的障碍的理解。它还旨在认识到工程研究生教育在推进研究和理论方面可以发挥的关键作用，这些研究和理论涉及研究生如何看待偏见以及他们（或不）发展弹性的方式，以缓冲他们的负面经历。对研究生阶段工程教育的关注有望丰富对偏见经历如何抑制和转移职业抱负的一般理解，同时为那些决心忍受的人提供深入了解工程专业高级培训的具体情况。过去关于工程身份，招聘，保留和偏见的研究集中在本科生，几乎没有留下任何经验证据来理解毕业生的经历。此外，偏见研究对STEM领域进行集体研究，而我们计划专门关注工程和工程中的各个学科。本研究分三个阶段进行：（1）通过访谈，定性探讨少数民族工科研究生感知偏见的生活体验及其对工程身份发展的影响;（2）通过全国性问卷调查，定量测量工科研究生感知偏见体验和工程身份;以及（3）定性评估对前几个阶段数据的解释，并使用访谈和参与者视频日记记录重新审视最初参与者的感知偏见经历。这三个阶段的研究将由以下研究问题指导：RQ 1。工程研究生如何概念化自己的身份，认为自己的身份是少数民族，并根据这些身份和身份交叉点的经验感知偏见？RQ 2.作为研究生课程中的少数群体，经历/感知偏见如何影响工程师身份？交叉认同如何影响工程认同？RQ 3.是否有与工程师身份相关的经验可以减轻感知偏见的影响？ RQ 4.现有的身份是否可以支持工程身份开发？如果是这样，如何利用它们来支持学生的坚持，表现和参与？目标是产生经验证据，以便：识别感知的偏见是否/如何破坏工程身份的发展，提供减少和减轻偏见的最佳实践建议，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

项目成果

Inequity in graduate engineering identity: Disciplinary differences and opportunity structures

研究生工程身份的不平等：学科差异和机会结构

• DOI: 10.1002/jee.20427
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Journal of Engineering Education
• 影响因子: 3.4
• 作者: Bahnson, Matthew;Perkins, Heather;Tsugawa, Marissa;Satterfield, Derrick;Parker, Mackenzie;Cass, Cheryl;Kirn, Adam
• 通讯作者: Kirn, Adam

Interacting with Ruling Relations: Engineering Graduate Student Experiences of Discrimination

与统治关系互动：工程研究生的歧视经历

• DOI: 10.21061/see.76
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Studies in Engineering Education
• 作者: Bahnson, Matthew;Satterfield, Derrick;Wyer, Mary;Kirn, Adam
• 通讯作者: Kirn, Adam

Students' Experiences of Unfairness in Graduate Engineering Education

研究生工程教育不公平的学生经历

• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity
• 作者: Bahnson, M.;Satterfield, D.;Wyer, M.;Kirn, A.
• 通讯作者: Kirn, A.