Understanding PhD Career Pathways: Transitions and Persistence in the PhD-Prepared STEM Workforce

美国研究生院委员会将审查有关科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)博士职业抱负和校友成果的数据，这些数据来自70个不同的美国博士生机构网络。拟议的项目将进行一项调查，以审查影响STEM职业生涯的保留和持久性以及就业部门之间的过渡的个人和环境因素。该项目的基本假设是，自我效能感和职业价值观等个人属性以及STEM工作场所的组织氛围等环境因素可以解释职业生涯早期和中期STEM博士学位持有者的工作转变和坚持性。该项目将有助于了解在STEM博士教育完成期间和之后，这些个人属性和对环境因素的看法可能如何随着各种社会化、文化适应和职业化过程而变化。该项目通过实证记录社会化、文化适应和职业化活动如何影响STEM劳动力的职业发展，对最近的研究做出了回应，这些研究揭示了人们对STEM学术生涯的兴趣下降和对研究生院经历的满意度下降。该项目还隔离了旨在提高STEM持久性的政策干预的潜在途径。综合职业锚和社会认知职业理论，该研究将采用混合方法设计来调查三个研究问题：(1)因素，包括参与各种职业和专业发展活动，以及以前作为临时教员和/或博士后实习生的工作，如何解释STEM博士校友在STEM教授或其他STEM工作场所的持久性和过渡性？(2)因素，包括参与各种职业和专业发展活动，以及以前/现在作为临时教员和/或博士后实习生的工作，如何解释STEM博士毕业生在STEM教授或其他STEM工作场所的持久性和过渡性？解释博士生科学家和工程师对STEM领域的组织氛围和文化的看法？以及(3)个人因素，包括参与各种职业和专业发展活动，以及之前作为临时教员和/或博士后实习生的工作，以及对STEM领域的组织氛围和文化的看法，如何影响STEM博士毕业生和学生在STEM领域内外就业部门的职业转变？研究人员将对2500多名STEM项目的2500多名校友和4000名学生参与者进行跟踪调查，并对有目的的调查受访者进行半结构化的定性访谈。收集了数据后，研究人员将进行逻辑回归，以确定哪些协变量对解释STEM场持久性和转变最有信息。该项目将产生可指导投资和战略的数据，以支持STEM职业发展。该项目由STEM专业劳动力发展主题--EHR核心研究(ECR)计划支持。ECR资助基础研究项目，这些项目涉及STEM学习和学习环境、扩大对STEM的参与以及STEM劳动力发展。该奖项反映了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。

The Council of Graduate Schools will examine data about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) PhD career aspirations and alumni outcomes from a network of 70 diverse U.S. doctoral institutions. The proposed project will conduct a survey to examine individual and environmental factors that influence retention and persistence in STEM careers and transitions between employment sectors. The underlying assumption of the project is that individual attributes such as self-efficacy and career values, as well as environmental factors such as organizational climate of the STEM workplace, could explain job transitions and persistence of early- and mid-career STEM doctorate holders. The project will contribute to knowledge about how these individual attributes and perceptions of environmental factors might change with various socialization, acculturation, and professionalization processes during and after the STEM doctoral education is completed. The project responds to recent studies that uncover declining interest in STEM academic careers and decreasing satisfaction with graduate school experiences by empirically documenting how socialization, acculturation, and professionalization activities may affect career progression in the STEM workforce. The project also isolates potential avenues for policy interventions designed to increase STEM persistence.Grounded in career anchor and social cognitive career theory, the study will employ a mixed-methods design to investigate three research questions: (1) How do factors, including participation in various career and professional development activities, as well as prior employment as contingent faculty and/or postdoctoral trainee, explain persistence and transitions of STEM PhD alumni in the STEM professoriate or other STEM workplaces? (2) How do factors, including participation in various career and professional development activities, as well as prior/current employment as contingent faculty and/or postdoctoral trainee, explain perceptions about organizational climate and culture in STEM fields among doctoral scientists and engineers? and (3) How do individual factors, including participation in various career and professional development activities, as well as prior employment as contingent faculty and/or postdoctoral trainee, as well as perceptions about organizational climate and culture in STEM fields, influence career transitions of STEM PhD alumni and students across employment sectors in and out of STEM fields? Researchers will conduct a follow-up survey of more than 2,500 alumni and 4,000 student participants in the current Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement in STEM project and include semi-structured qualitative interviews of a purposeful sample of survey respondents. Having collected the data, the researchers will run logistic regressions to determine which covariates are most informative for explaining STEM field persistence and transitions. The project will produce data that can guide investments and strategies to support STEM career development.This project is supported by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, STEM professional workforce development theme. ECR funds fundamental research projects that address STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.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.