An Examination of How the Lived Experiences of African American Undergraduates Affect their Persistence in their Engineering Programs

研究非裔美国本科生的生活经历如何影响他们对工程项目的坚持

• 批准号: 2000769
• 负责人: Gladis Kersaint
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: University of Connecticut
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2000769&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Examination; How; Lived; Experiences; African

Despite efforts to broaden their participation in STEM, African Americans continue to be underrepresented in the STEM disciplines. Even after enrolling to major in STEM degrees, African Americans are more likely to switch to non-STEM majors or leave college compared to other ethnic groups. The purpose of this project through the University of Connecticut is to examine the lived experiences of African American engineering undergraduates at three predominately white institutions (PWI). The investigators specifically focus on how students’ encounters with racism, stereotyping, discrimination, and gender biases may increase their isolation and contribute to their decisions to switch to non-engineering degrees during the first two years in their programs. They also investigate the strategies of African American students who persist in their engineering programs, such as joining engineering professional organizations such as the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) or establishing a supportive social network (includes peer and faculty mentors) that provide cultural familiarity to reduce their isolation and likelihood to switch to non-engineering majors. To make large-scale, long-term change in the culture of engineering programs, the investigators will use their research findings to develop evidence-based materials that target the ongoing problem of racial and gender-based microaggressions (i.e., intended or unintended insults and disparaging comments that demean African Americans and other marginalized populations). This project is supported by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. 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.Theoretically-driven, this project’s research uses racism, intersectionality, and social capital theories to examine the racial and gender dynamics and practices that African American students experience, in addition to how their supportive social networks and other experiences influence their persistence in engineering. Uniquely, in this mixed-methods study, the investigators will use: 1) experience sampling method (ESM), which allows the collection of both real-time qualitative and quantitative data from participants about their experiences in their engineering programs as they occur and 2) oral stories that show how participants construct their realities within their engineering program cultures and harness their agency in the face of often disempowering circumstances. Students will also complete a baseline survey and a baseline interview about their academic, socioeconomic, and engineering backgrounds. Quantitative and qualitative data will be analyzed and these research findings will add to the growing literature on intersectionality and women of color in STEM higher education. This study adds a critical anthropological perspective to the ongoing theory-driven research and debate on race, intersectionality, and social capital within STEM education research. The findings will have broad impacts on the efforts of engineering and other STEM programs to diversify their student body.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.

尽管努力扩大他们对STEM的参与，但非洲裔美国人在STEM学科中的代表性仍然不足。即使在注册主修STEM学位后，与其他种族相比，非洲裔美国人更有可能转到非STEM专业或离开大学。这个项目通过康涅狄格大学进行，目的是研究三所以白人为主的大学（PWI）的非裔美国工程本科生的生活经历。调查人员特别关注学生如何遭遇种族主义、刻板印象、歧视和性别偏见，这可能会增加他们的孤立感，并导致他们在项目的前两年决定转到非工程学位。他们还调查了坚持工程专业的非裔美国学生的策略，例如加入工程专业组织，如全国黑人工程师协会（NSBE），或建立一个支持性的社会网络（包括同伴和教师导师），提供文化熟悉度，以减少他们的孤立感和转到非工程专业的可能性。为了在工程项目文化中做出大规模、长期的改变，调查人员将利用他们的研究成果来开发基于证据的材料，以解决基于种族和性别的微侵犯（即有意或无意的侮辱和贬低非裔美国人和其他边缘化人群的贬低言论）的持续问题。该项目得到了EHR核心研究（ECR）计划的支持，该计划支持推进STEM学习和学习环境基础研究、扩大STEM参与和STEM劳动力发展的工作。虽然该项目主要由ECR计划资助，但工程理事会扩大工程参与（BPE）计划也提供了额外的支持。在理论驱动下，本项目的研究使用种族主义、交叉性和社会资本理论来研究非裔美国学生所经历的种族和性别动态和实践，以及他们的支持性社会网络和其他经历如何影响他们在工程方面的坚持。独特的是，在这个混合方法的研究中，研究者将使用：1)经验抽样法（ESM），它允许从参与者那里收集他们在工程项目中发生的实时定性和定量数据；2)口头故事，展示参与者如何在他们的工程项目文化中构建他们的现实，并在面对经常被剥夺权力的环境时利用他们的代理。学生还将完成一项关于他们的学术、社会经济和工程背景的基线调查和基线访谈。将对定量和定性数据进行分析，这些研究结果将增加有关STEM高等教育中的交叉性和有色人种女性的文献。这项研究为STEM教育研究中正在进行的关于种族、交叉性和社会资本的理论驱动研究和辩论增加了一个批判性的人类学视角。这些发现将对工程和其他STEM项目多样化学生群体的努力产生广泛影响。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。