CAREER:Leveraging learning and engineering identity to broaden participation of Black males in colleges of engineering

在许多工程领域，非裔美国男性经常被低估。由于国家对工程劳动力的需求不断增长，美国找到扩大代表性不足群体（如非洲裔美国男性）参与的方法至关重要。这个CAREER项目代表了工程研究生项目中黑人男性定性数据的最大集合，将有助于该领域了解非洲裔美国男性如何发展他们对工程师意味着什么的看法（即发展工程师身份）。它还可能精确地指出提高他们在工程方面的学术保留和成功的关键机制，特别是在研究生阶段。此外，该项目建议为工程领域黑人男性的新学习和认同理论的发展做出贡献。这项工作的发现对变革具有巨大的意义，例如为工程学院提供所需的知识和理解，以更好地为黑人男性研究生服务，并帮助这些学生坚持从事工程。同样重要的是，从这个项目中产生的新理论将为工程管理人员，教师和员工提供关于如何扩大非裔美国男性参与工程的重要见解。本项目产生的定性访谈将提供独特的机会，从非裔美国男性的角度探索教育经历（例如，学生的代理，坚持因素等），同时仍然可以分析特定机构的案例（例如，学生在一个机构的经历，支持和/或阻碍学生保留的机构因素），以及跨案例分析(例如，学生的人口统计信息，与工程身份和长期参与相关的机构、系统和结构、保留黑人男性研究生的机构最佳实践的学生经历比较)。通过研究结果的传播，所有利益相关者（如教师、管理人员和工作人员、政策制定者、K-12教育领导者和学生）将获得关于黑人男性在工程研究生项目中的独特经历的更深入的见解和知识，并将因为获得这些信息而更好地为这些学生服务。

In many engineering subfields, African American males are frequently underrepresented. Because of growing national engineering workforce demands, it is critical that the United States find ways to broadening participation among underrepresented groups, such as African American males. This CAREER project, which represents the largest aggregation of qualitative data on Black males in engineering graduate programs, will contribute to the field's understanding of how African American males develop their perceptions of what it means to be an engineer (i.e., develop an engineering identity). It is also likely to pinpoint key mechanisms that improve their academic retention and success in engineering, particularly at the graduate level. Further, the project proposes to contribute to the development of a new learning and identity theory on Black men in engineering. The findings from this work have immense implications for transformative change, such as equipping Colleges of Engineering with the needed knowledge and understanding to better serve Black male graduate students and help these students to persist in engineering. Equally important, the new theory generated from this this project will offer engineering administrators, faculty, and staff important insights on how to broadening engineering participation among African American males. The qualitative interviews, resulting from this project, will provide the unique opportunity to explore the educational experiences from the perspectives of African American males (e.g., students' agency, persistence factors, etc.) while still enabling analyses of institution-specific cases (e.g., experiences of students at one institution, institutional factors that serve as supports and/or barriers to students' retention), and cross-case analyses (e.g., students' demographic information, students' experiences compared across institutions, systems and structures related to engineering identity and long-term participation, institutional best practices in retention of Black men graduate students). Through the dissemination of findings, all stakeholders (e.g., faculty members, administrators and staff, policymakers, K-12 education leaders, and students) will obtain greater insights and knowledge on Black males' unique experiences in engineering graduate programs and will become better able to serve these students as a result of obtaining this information.