Investigating the Barriers to Retention and Tenure for Black and Hispanic Engineering Faculty at R1 Institutions

调查 R1 机构黑人和西班牙裔工程教师保留和终身任职的障碍

• 批准号: 2001724
• 负责人: Henry Tran
• 金额: $ 40万
• 依托单位: University of South Carolina at Columbia
• 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: 2020-05-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2001724&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Investigating; Barriers; Retention; Tenure; Black

The purpose of this project is to identify factors that facilitate or impede progress toward tenure for Black and Hispanic engineering faculty (BHEF) on the tenure track at four-year Research1 (R1) Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) and how those factors contribute to faculty retention and/or turnover. This project seeks to uncover how departments that do well in retaining BHEF might operate differently from those that do not. The objectives are to (a) empirically explore the link between faculty socialization and BHEF tenure and retention, (b) better understand the “push/pull” (i.e., promote/impede) factors that affect that relationship, and (c) how those factors look in IHEs/engineering departments that retain their BHEF when compared to those that do not. This research will provide greater insight into how to retain underrepresented BHEF in the critical field of engineering. When talented BHEF are tenured, institutions are better positioned to develop a diverse, globally competitive, next generation of engineers. This in turn, contributes to increased economic competitiveness in the United States. Scholars maintain that socialization (i.e., the norms and values transmitted) is largely responsible for the non-inclusive departmental environments that spur higher rates of attrition for underrepresented minority faculty. However, this theory has not been robustly examined. A sequential mixed methods design will be employed to address three research questions. Phase One explores, “What are the factors that facilitate and/or impede progress towards tenure among pre-tenured BHEF at four-year R1 institutions?” and includes a national survey to all professors of engineering at R1 higher education institutions nationally to determine the relationship between diversity climate and faculty turnover intentions. Diversity climate will be measured by the Diversity Climate Perceptions scale (Mor Barak et al., 1998) and the Diversity Promise scale (Chrobot-Mason, 2003), while turnover intentions will be measured by the TI-6 instrument (Shore & Martin, 1989). The initial results will be disaggregated by sub-disciplines, (e.g., civil, electrical) to determine any potential differences in engineering subfields. Phase Two addresses two research questions: “How do the factors that facilitate and/or impede progress towards tenure operate in contributing to faculty retention or turnover?” and “How do IHEs/engineering departments that retain BHEF socialize their faculty differently from those that do not?” The results of the phase one survey will be used to identify the sample of late pre-tenure professors (self-identified as Black or Hispanic) from which to recruit participants for follow-up interviews over a two-year period. The investigators will examine the rationale and factors influencing decisions to remain in or depart from the professoriate; and if they depart, where they have gone and what they plan to do. In addition to identifying supports and barriers to tenure for BHEF, this research is expected to reveal ways to mitigate the exclusionary effect of barriers to better sustain the diversification of engineering faculty, as well as provide insights to create inclusive IHE/departments.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.

该项目的目的是确定促进或阻碍黑人和西班牙裔工程学院（BHEF）在四年制研究1（R1）高等教育机构（IHE）的终身教职轨道上取得进展的因素，以及这些因素如何有助于教师的保留和/或营业额。该项目旨在揭示在保留BHEF方面做得很好的部门如何与那些不这样做的部门不同。本研究的目的是：（a）实证性地探索教师社会化与BHEF任期和保留之间的联系，（B）更好地理解“推/拉”（即，促进/阻碍）影响这种关系的因素，以及（c）与不保留BHEF的IHE/工程部门相比，这些因素在保留BHEF的IHE/工程部门中的表现如何。这项研究将提供更深入的了解如何保留代表性不足的BHEF在工程的关键领域。当有才华的BHEF获得终身教职时，机构将更好地培养多样化，具有全球竞争力的下一代工程师。这反过来又有助于提高美国的经济竞争力。 学者们认为，社会化（即，传播的规范和价值观）在很大程度上造成了非包容性的部门环境，这种环境促使代表性不足的少数族裔教师的自然减员率更高。然而，这一理论尚未得到有力的检验。一个连续的混合方法设计将被用来解决三个研究问题。第一阶段探讨，“是什么因素，促进和/或阻碍终身制BHEF在四年制R1机构之间的进展？”包括对全国R1高等教育机构的所有工程学教授进行的一项全国性调查，以确定多样性气候与教师离职意愿之间的关系。多样性气候将通过多样性气候感知量表（莫尔巴拉克等人，1998年）和多样性承诺规模（Chrobot-Mason，2003年），而离职意愿将衡量的TI-6工具（海岸马丁，1989年）。初步结果将按次级学科分列（例如，土木、电气），以确定工程子领域中的任何潜在差异。第二阶段解决了两个研究问题：“如何促进和/或阻碍终身教职的进展的因素，有助于教师的保留或营业额？”以及“保留BHEF的IHE/工程部门如何使其教师与不保留的教师不同？”第一阶段调查的结果将用于确定后期前终身教授（自认为是黑人或西班牙裔）的样本，从中招募参与者进行为期两年的后续面试。调查人员将研究的理由和影响决定留在或离开教授的因素;如果他们离开，他们去了哪里，他们计划做什么。除了确定对BHEF终身教职的支持和障碍外，这项研究还有望揭示如何减轻障碍的排斥效应，以更好地维持工程学院的多样化，并为创建包容性IHE/部门提供见解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。