Documenting Experiences and Resources Supporting the Community College Transfer, Persistence, and Graduation of Black Engineering Students

虽然学者们经常关注K-12学校和四年制学院和大学在培养未来黑人工程师方面的作用，但人们对社区学院在支持这一代表性不足的人口方面的影响知之甚少。 了解社区学院的作用是特别重要的，因为大量的黑人学生在过渡到四年制工程项目之前在这些学校注册。 此外，有证据表明，在社区学院开始中学后职业生涯的大量黑人工程专业学生实际上可能是来自撒哈拉以南非洲国家的第一代美国人。 这项研究将阐明的因素，被引用的不同的黑人工程的未来和当前的转移学生从马里兰州社区学院的关键，他们的能力，坚持自己的专业。 该研究小组将对计划或已经从马里兰州社区学院转到A。马里兰州大学詹姆斯·克拉克工程学院。 在项目期间，该团队不仅会询问研究参与者是什么导致他们能够继续他们的专业，而且还将揭示在美国出生和接受教育的学生之间的学术道路的差异，与那些在另一个国家受教育的人相比。 在最近宣布的“共同建设”运动的背景下，该运动为马里兰州大学提供了校园历史上最大的礼物，其中包括对工程转学生的具体支持，该项目对该州的克拉克学校和社区学院尤其重要。 此外，该项目利用了马里兰州在为未来的转学生制定支持计划和政策方面已经很强的历史。 通过这项研究，大学和马里兰州将准备成为国家领导人，在确定因素，导致生产多样化的工程转学生。 这项研究建立在工程教育和高等教育文献中越来越多的研究的基础上，这些研究强调了社区大学经验对STEM学生的中心地位。 该项目还利用了最近在教育和社会科学奖学金的作品，揭示了记录广泛归类为黑人或非裔美国人的学生之间的组内差异的重要性。 总的来说，这些作品揭示了代表非洲散居各地的学生在K-12和学院/大学经历中的显著差异。 在这些研究的前景下，本项目的研究小组将研究各种黑人大学生在从马里兰州两年制大学转到A大学之前、期间和之后对他们的成功至关重要的因素。马里兰州大学詹姆斯·克拉克工程学院。 该团队将采用纵向设计，这将使他们能够研究三个队列的学生在多个点沿着工程管道。 主要使用定性方法，包括焦点小组和访谈，研究人员将使用系统和归纳编码方法分析成绩单，以确定贯穿整个研究的突出主题。 为了阐明两个不同的黑人群体的学术经验-在美国出生和接受教育的黑人和在撒哈拉以南非洲地区出生和接受教育的黑人-该团队将制定单独的访谈和焦点小组协议，反映两个群体之间的潜在趋同和分歧领域。 项目成果将通过网站、宣传册、一个或多个网络研讨会以及代表美国不同地区的主要利益相关者的参与来广泛传播。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。

While scholars have often focused on the role of K-12 schools and four-year colleges and universities in the production of future Black engineers, far less is known about the impact of community colleges in regard to their ability to support this underrepresented population. Understanding the role of community colleges is particularly important, given the large numbers of Black students that enroll in these schools prior to transitioning to four-year engineering programs. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that a substantial number of Black engineering students who start their postsecondary careers at community colleges may in fact be first-generation Americans from sub-Saharan African countries. This study will illuminate factors that are cited by diverse Black engineering prospective and current transfer students from Maryland community colleges as critical to their ability to persist in their majors. The research team will lead a three-year study of cohorts of Black American and Black African undergraduates who plan to or have already transferred from a Maryland community college to the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. Over the duration of the project, the team will not only query the study participants about what has led to their ability to continue in their majors, but will also reveal differences between the academic paths of students born and educated in the U.S., compared to those who were educated in another country. In the context of the recent announcement of the Building Together campaign, which afforded the University of Maryland the largest gift in the history of the campus and which includes specific support for engineering transfer students, this project is especially relevant for the Clark School and community colleges in the state. Furthermore, the project leverages the already strong history that the state of Maryland has with regard to developing support programs and policies for prospective transfer students. Through this study, the University and state of Maryland will be poised to become national leaders in identifying factors that lead to the production of diverse engineering transfer students. This research study builds upon the growing number of studies in engineering education and higher education literature that highlight the centrality of the community college experience to STEM students. The project also leverages recent works in education and social science scholarship that reveal the importance of documenting within-group differences among students broadly classified as Black or African American. Collectively, these works reveal noteworthy differences in the K-12 and college/university experiences of students who represent various areas of the African diaspora. Foregrounded by these studies, the research team in this project will examine factors cited by diverse Black collegians as crucial to their success before, during, and after transfer from a Maryland two-year college to the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. The team will employ a longitudinal design that will enable them to study three cohorts of students at multiple points along the engineering pipeline. Using primarily qualitative methods that include focus groups and interviews, researchers will analyze transcripts using systematic and inductive coding methods to identify prominent themes that consistently appear throughout the study. In order to explicate the academic experiences of two distinct Black populations - Blacks born and educated in the U.S. and Blacks born and educated in sub-Saharan African contexts - the team will develop separate interview and focus group protocols that reflect potential areas of convergence and divergence between the two populations. Broad dissemination of project results will be accomplished through a website, brochure, and one or more webinars, as well as engagement with key stakeholders representing diverse regions of the country.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.