Understanding Employment Trajectories of Racially Minoritized Engineering PhDs

了解少数种族工程博士的就业轨迹

• 批准号: 1916534
• 负责人: Ebony McGee
• 金额: $ 59.4万
• 依托单位: Vanderbilt University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-07-01 至 2023-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1916534&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Understanding; Employment; Trajectories; Racially; Minoritized

Despite well-funded efforts to diversify engineering in the United States, Americans who identify as Black, Latinx, and Indigenous (Native American, Alaskan, or Hawaiian) remain underrepresented and marginalized throughout engineering academic training and employment. Previous research has identified that underrepresented PhD-degreed engineers of color are less likely to be employed in engineering jobs compared to their overrepresented counterparts. However, there is much less certainty on the reasons behind this disparity. Moreover, the employment paths of White women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) employment have been extensively explored along with the career trajectories of graduate students of color in STEM, but there has been very little attention to engineers of color with PhDs post-graduation. The focus of this research is to understand the employment paths for two populations: underrepresented engineers of color who have successfully navigated the challenges of obtaining an engineering PhD, along with Asian engineering PhD holders who are well-represented in the field. This research will investigate two critical factors that can help explain disparities for underrepresented engineers of color: (1) their experiences of racialization, and (2) their interest in using engineering as a mechanism to decrease social inequities. This research will address the gap in understanding the factors that drive these disparities in engineering employment outcomes across racial groups and how to decrease them, thereby aiding engineering education and industry communities in becoming and remaining more diverse, innovative, and affirming. The researchers will answer these questions through a mixed-methods design, including a longitudinal survey component and qualitative in-depth interviews. Survey respondents will be engineers of color who are working in industry and the academic workforce within a decade of graduating with their PhD. Participants will be recruited through the professional networking site LinkedIn as well as professional organizations for engineers of color. In the first phase, survey data and analysis, using structural equation modeling, will determine how respondents' experiences of racial inequity and bias at work and their motivations and efforts to address social inequities through engineering vis-a-vis their employers, predict their employment outcomes (e.g., commitment, intentions to quit) by increasing their "job embeddedness." The analyses will test this model across different race groups. Collecting follow-up employment data one year later will provide a measure of actual persistence. Survey findings will inform the content of the qualitative interview protocol. Interview participants will be people of color with an engineering PhD who are not directly using their engineering skillset because they either switched from an engineering job into a non-engineering job or transitioned into a leadership or administrative position. These findings will help to identify why engineers of color with advanced doctoral training are either: (a) dissatisfied and pushed away from this workforce or (b) persist in their work to transition into different roles that allow them to diversify the field. Insights from this research will inform workplace training webinars promoting diversity and inclusion in engineering workplaces in both industry and academia.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.

尽管资金充足的努力，以多样化的工程在美国，美国人谁确定为黑人，拉丁美洲人和土著（美洲原住民，阿拉斯加，或夏威夷）仍然代表性不足，并在整个工程学术培训和就业边缘化。以前的研究已经确定，与代表性过高的同行相比，代表性不足的有色人种博士学位工程师不太可能从事工程工作。然而，这种差异背后的原因却不太确定。此外，白色女性在科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）就业方面的就业途径已经被广泛探索，沿着有色人种研究生在STEM的职业轨迹，但很少有人关注有色人种工程师的博士毕业后。这项研究的重点是了解两个人群的就业途径：代表性不足的有色人种工程师，他们成功地克服了获得工程博士学位的挑战，沿着亚洲工程博士学位持有者，他们在该领域有很好的代表性。这项研究将调查两个关键因素，可以帮助解释差异的代表性不足的工程师的颜色：（1）他们的种族化的经验，（2）他们的兴趣，利用工程作为一种机制，以减少社会不平等。这项研究将解决在理解驱动这些差异的因素，在工程就业结果跨种族群体和如何减少他们的差距差距，从而帮助工程教育和行业社区变得更加多样化，创新和肯定。研究人员将通过混合方法设计回答这些问题，包括纵向调查和定性深入访谈。调查的受访者将是有色人种的工程师，他们在博士毕业后的十年内在工业和学术界工作。参与者将通过专业社交网站LinkedIn以及有色人种工程师的专业组织招募。在第一阶段，调查数据和分析，使用结构方程模型，将确定受访者在工作中的种族不平等和偏见的经验，以及他们的动机和努力，以解决社会不平等，通过工程与他们的雇主，预测他们的就业结果（例如，承诺，辞职的意图）通过增加他们的“工作嵌入”。“分析将在不同的种族群体中测试这一模型。一年后收集后续就业数据将提供实际持续性的衡量标准。调查结果将为定性访谈协议的内容提供信息。面试参与者将是拥有工程博士学位的有色人种，他们没有直接使用他们的工程技能，因为他们要么从工程工作转为非工程工作，要么过渡到领导或行政职位。这些研究结果将有助于确定为什么具有高级博士培训的有色人种工程师要么：（a）不满意并被推离这支劳动力队伍，要么（B）坚持他们的工作，过渡到不同的角色，使他们能够使该领域多样化。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。