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

在工程专业中，女性的代表性仍然严重不足，而且坚持在这个领域工作的女性远远少于男性。有相当多的证据表明，缺乏对工程的认同导致学生辍学，尽管他们展示了技术技能。认可对女性学生身份的发展和坚持至关重要。先前的研究表明，当女工科学生不被同龄人和导师认可时，她们作为工程师的身份就会减弱，并且觉得自己不属于工程文化。本研究将聚焦于解决女性工程专业学生对提高被认可感的迫切需求。这项工作将为改善女性工程专业学生的招聘和保留策略提供见解。这项研究的结果将被全国的工程教育工作者用来帮助学生创造一个积极的课堂和校园环境，从而增加工程领域代表性不足群体的潜在保留率。该项目有三个主要目标。目标1：确定影响女性土木工程师作为土木工程师被认可感觉的因素。目标2：开展有针对性的认可活动，作为干预措施，增加土木工程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同感受和工程认同发展的影响。在两年的时间里，将使用混合方法来检查女工程专业学生的身份发展。本研究将探讨针对性的认同活动（干预）对女工科学生工程认同形成的影响。更具体地说，该项目将确定认可干预是否以及在多大程度上加强了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和承认自己是工程师的正式干预措施是征聘和保留工程领域代表性不足群体的一个重要方面。此计划亦有助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。

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.