Understanding Employment Trajectories of Racially Minoritized Engineering PhDs

尽管资金充足，努力使美国的工程多样化，但在整个工程学术培训和就业中，黑人、拉丁裔和土著（美国原住民、阿拉斯加人或夏威夷人）的美国人仍然没有被充分代表和边缘化。之前的研究已经发现，与有色人种的博士工程师相比，有色人种被低估的工程师更不可能从事工程工作。然而，这种差异背后的原因却不太确定。此外，白人女性在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的就业路径与有色人种研究生在STEM领域的职业轨迹一起得到了广泛的探索，但对毕业后拥有博士学位的有色人种工程师的关注却很少。本研究的重点是了解两种人群的就业路径：一种是少数族裔的工程师，他们成功地克服了获得工程博士学位的挑战，另一种是在该领域具有良好代表性的亚裔工程博士。本研究将调查两个关键因素，可以帮助解释代表性不足的有色人种工程师的差异：(1)他们的种族化经历，(2)他们对使用工程作为减少社会不平等的机制的兴趣。这项研究将解决在理解导致不同种族的工程就业结果差异的因素以及如何减少这些差异方面的差距，从而帮助工程教育和行业社区变得并保持更加多样化、创新和肯定。研究人员将通过混合方法的设计来回答这些问题，包括纵向调查和定性深入访谈。调查对象将是在获得博士学位后的十年内在工业界和学术界工作的有色人种工程师。参与者将通过专业社交网站LinkedIn以及有色人种工程师专业组织进行招聘。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种族不平等和偏见的经历，他们的动机和努力，通过工程解决社会不平等，面对他们的雇主，通过增加他们的“工作嵌入性”来预测他们的就业结果（例如，承诺，辞职意图）。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久性的衡量标准。调查结果将告知定性访谈协议的内容。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到非工程工作，要么过渡到领导或行政职位。这些发现将有助于确定为什么受过高级博士培训的有色人种工程师要么：(a)不满意并被赶出这个队伍，要么(b)坚持自己的工作，以过渡到不同的角色，使他们能够实现领域多元化。这项研究的见解将为工作场所培训网络研讨会提供信息，以促进工业和学术界工程工作场所的多样性和包容性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

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.