IrecognizeU: Finding the Pathway to Increasing Women Civil Engineering Students’ Feeling of Recognition to Develop an Engineering Identity

妇女在工程专业中的代表性仍然严重不足，在该领域坚持工作的妇女人数远远少于男子。有相当多的证据表明，缺乏对工程的认同导致学生辍学，尽管他们已经展示了技术技能。承认对于女学生的身份发展和坚持至关重要。以前的研究表明，当女性工程专业学生不被同龄人和导师认可时，她们作为工程师的身份较弱，并且不觉得自己属于工程文化。这项研究将侧重于解决改善女性工程专业学生的认可感的关键需求。这项工作将提供深入了解战略，将改善招聘和留住女工程专业学生。这项研究的结果将被全国各地的工程教育工作者用来帮助为学生创造一个积极的课堂和校园环境，从而提高工程中代表性不足的群体的潜在保留率。目标1：确定影响女性土木工程师作为土木工程师的认可感的因素。目标2：开展有针对性的表彰活动，作为干预措施，提高土木工程专业女学生作为土木工程师的认可感。目标3：确定干预措施对女性土木工程专业学生作为土木工程专业学生的认可感和工程身份发展的影响。将采用混合方法，在两年时间内审查工科女学生的身份发展情况。本研究旨在探讨定向认知活动（干预）对工科女生工程身份形成的影响。更具体地说，该项目将确定认可干预措施是否以及在何种程度上加强土木工程专业女学生的工程身份。使妇女更容易被承认为工程师并承认自己是工程师的正式干预措施是征聘和留住工程界代表性不足群体的一个重要方面。该项目还将有助于发展工程学院在进行工程教育研究方面的专业知识。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。

Women remain dramatically underrepresented in the engineering profession, and far fewer women than men persist in the field. There is considerable evidence that a lack of identification with engineering causes students to drop out despite demonstrated technical skills. Recognition is vitally important to the development of identity and the persistence of women students. Previous research has shown when women engineering students were not recognized by their peers and instructors, they had weaker identities as engineers and did not feel as if they belonged in the culture of engineering. This research will focus on addressing the critical need for improved feeling of recognition for women engineering students. This work will provide insight into strategies that would improve recruitment and retention of women engineering students. The results of this study will be used by engineering educators across the country to help create a positive classroom and campus environment for students, thus increasing the potential retention of underrepresented groups in engineering.The project has three main goals. Goal 1: Identify factors impacting women civil engineers’ feelings of recognition as civil engineers. Goal 2: Develop targeted recognition activities as interventions to increase women civil engineering students’ feelings of recognition as civil engineers. Goal 3: Determine the impact of interventions on women civil engineering students’ feelings of recognition as civil engineering students and engineering identity development. A mixed-methods approach will be used to examine women engineering students’ identity development over a duration of two years. The research will investigate the effects of targeted recognition activities (interventions) on the women engineering students’ formation of engineering identity. More specifically, the project will determine whether, and to what extent, recognition interventions strengthen the engineering identity of women students in civil engineering. Formal interventions that enable women to be more readily recognized as engineers and to recognize themselves as engineers are an important aspect of recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in engineering. This project will also help to develop the expertise of the engineering faculty in conducting engineering education research.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.