Understanding Employment Trajectories of Racially Minoritized Engineering PhDs

尽管在美国有充足的资金使工程学多样化，但在整个工程学学术培训和就业过程中，自认为是黑人、拉丁裔和土著(美洲原住民、阿拉斯加人或夏威夷人)的美国人仍然代表不足，处于边缘地位。之前的研究已经发现，与代表人数过多的同行相比，代表不足的有色人种博士学位工程师更不可能受雇于工程工作。然而，这种差距背后的原因就不那么确定了。此外，白人女性在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)就业方面的就业途径以及STEM有色人种研究生的职业轨迹已经得到了广泛的探索，但对毕业后拥有博士学位的有色人种工程师的关注很少。这项研究的重点是了解两种人群的就业途径：成功地克服了获得工程学博士学位的挑战的代表不足的有色人种工程师，以及在该领域具有良好代表性的亚洲工程学博士学位持有者。这项研究将调查有助于解释代表不足的有色人种工程师差异的两个关键因素：(1)他们的种族主义经历，(2)他们对使用工程学作为一种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之间工程就业结果差异的因素以及如何缩小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多样化、更创新和更肯定。研究人员将通过混合方法设计来回答这些问题，包括纵向调查部分和定性的深度访谈。调查的受访者将是在工业和学术界工作的有色人种工程师，他们将在博士毕业后十年内工作。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，调查数据和使用结构方程模型的分析将确定受访者在工作中经历的种族不平等和偏见，以及他们通过工程技术解决与雇主之间的社会不平等问题的动机和努力，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、辞职意向)。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学博士学位的有色人种，他们没有直接使用自己的工程技能，因为他们要么从工程工作转到了非工程工作，要么过渡到了领导或行政职位。这些发现将有助于找出为什么受过高级博士培训的有色人种工程师要么：(A)不满意并被赶出这一劳动力大军，要么(B)坚持工作，过渡到不同的角色，使他们能够使该领域多样化。这项研究的见解将为工业界和学术界促进工程工作场所多样性和包容性的工作场所培训网络研讨会提供信息。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.