Study of New Strategies to Combat Harassment in Engineering

来自新墨西哥州州立大学（NMSU）的研究人员将实施EHR核心研究（ECR）计划研究项目。该ECR计划支持推进STEM学习和学习环境基础研究的工作，扩大STEM参与和STEM劳动力发展。该研究将评估旁观者干预培训-在大学和美国军队等其他背景下的成功方法-是否以及如何进行改进，调整和交付，以减少性骚扰并改变工程领域的制度氛围。该研究将包括两项多方法实地研究。在实地研究中，研究人员将在两个大学校园（NMSU和新罕布什尔州大学）聘请工程学院作为自己学生的旁观者培训师，以评估他们的参与是否会促进对打击骚扰的更大承诺，正如Dobbin等人所预测的那样。拟议的研究将有助于科学知识的组成部分和条件的有效规范为基础的战略，以减少骚扰和鼓励旁观者干预在工程workings.The研究人员将使用焦点小组和调查，以探讨教师和学生的影响，他们参与提供旁观者培训作为工程教师和工程专业的学生接受培训。 这项研究预计将为打击对弱势群体的骚扰提供策略，这些弱势群体通常在工程领域代表性不足，例如女性工程师，有色人种工程师和LGBTQ工程师。这两个校区有大量的第一代和代表性不足的少数民族学生在工程招生。实地研究将说明如何培养领导者的承诺，改变工程气候，以及如何修改工程专业课程，以增加不同的个人和他们的专业信心的保留。虽然该项目主要由ECR计划资助，但工程局的扩大工程参与（BPE）计划也提供了额外的支持。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。

Researchers from New Mexico State University (NMSU) will implement an EHR Core Research (ECR) program research project. This ECR program supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The study will assess whether and how bystander intervention training - a successful approach in other contexts such as universities and the U.S. military - can be refined, adapted, and delivered to reduce sexual harassment and change institutional climates in engineering. The study will include two multi-method field studies. In the field studies, the researchers will engage engineering faculty as bystander trainers of their own students on two university campuses (NMSU and University of New Hampshire) to assess whether their involvement fosters greater commitment to combat harassment, as predicted by the Dobbin et al. managerial engagement approach to organizational change (2015). The proposed research will contribute to scientific knowledge about the components and conditions of effective norm-based strategies to reduce harassment and encourage bystander intervention in the engineering workplace.The researchers will use focus groups and surveys to explore the impact on faculty and students of their participation in providing bystander training as engineering faculty and receiving the training from engineering faculty as engineering students. The research is expected to inform strategies to combat harassment against vulnerable individuals which are typically underrepresented in engineering, such as engineers that are women, engineers of color, and LGBTQ engineers. The two campuses have significant enrollment of first generation and underrepresented minority students in engineering. The field studies will illustrate how to foster leaders' commitment to change engineering climates and how to modify the engineering professional curriculum to increase the retention of diverse individuals and their professional confidence. While this project is primarily funded by the ECR program, additional support has been provided by the Directorate for Engineering's Broadening Participation in Engineering (BPE) program.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.