Collaborative Research: The Organizational Climate Challenge: Promoting the Retention of Students from Underrepresented Groups in Doctoral Engineering Programs

合作研究：组织气候挑战：促进博士工程项目中代表性不足群体的学生的保留

• 批准号: 2201101
• 负责人: So Yoon Yoon
• 金额: $ 38.16万
• 依托单位: University of Cincinnati Main Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2201101&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Organizational; Climate; Challenge

The ongoing lack of diversity in the engineering doctoral workforce remains a significant problem with far-reaching implications for the US economy. The long-term vitality of the US workforce relies on the full range of engineering career pathways being available to all Americans. A diverse STEM workforce is more creative and innovative. While the number of women completing STEM doctorates has risen, the proportion of women earning engineering doctorates remains low. And, in 2019, while 24.1% of engineering doctorates were earned by women, only 1.4% were earned by Hispanic, Black, and Native American women (no Native Hawaiian/ Pacific Islander women). Doctoral engineering attrition rates reveal a disproportionately high loss of students from groups historically underrepresented in STEM. The problem is not students’ inability to complete the Ph.D. degree requirements, but rather that talented students leave engineering doctoral programs before completing their doctorates. Student attrition results in a loss of human talent to the national endeavor of research and discovery at universities fueling US economic growth. Unwelcoming organizational climates in engineering doctoral programs likely contribute to this attrition. This project aims to examine the organizational climates of engineering doctoral programs to guide efforts that promote the persistence and retention of doctoral students in engineering. The goal of this mixed-methods project is to examine doctoral students’ perceptions of the factors that impact their persistence in degree completion and the differences in experiencing those factors based on intersecting social categories. This project adopts an explicitly intersectional approach to the meaning and relevance of students’ belonging to multiple social categories, including gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation, considered within the context of engineering doctoral education. Drawing on organizational climate research and intersectionality theory, the project’s multidisciplinary team aims to use a student-centered approach to shed light on multiple climate factors (e.g., climate for diversity, climate for inclusion, student sense of belonging, etc.) by engaging with students from diverse groups. To achieve a comprehensive picture of departmental climate and persistence, which may differ by intersectional group, major, and institution type, iterative and complementary cycles of project implementation are planned over the four-year project period. In Year 1, the researchers aim to use findings from the quantitative pilot climate survey approach to inform the qualitative design. The team aims to repeat this process in Year 2 to develop, refine, and validate the final survey instrument, including a climate scale which will be sensitive enough to assess intersectional phenomena unique to students from diverse groups. The scale will be grounded in measurement invariance, in that factors will be measured in the same way across different groups to reveal similarities and differences between engineering doctoral student populations. In Years 3 and 4, the researchers plan to administer the final survey nationally and incorporate follow-up interviews with a subsample of survey respondents, using a mixed-methods approach. In partnership with the American Society for Engineering Education, the team plans to deploy the climate survey nationally to engineering doctoral students and to share survey findings with engineering deans. This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The program supports the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to understand, build theory to explain, and suggest intervention and innovations to address persistent.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.

工程博士队伍持续缺乏多样性仍然是一个对美国经济产生深远影响的重大问题。美国劳动力的长期活力依赖于所有美国人都能获得全方位的工程职业道路。多元化的STEM劳动力更具创造力和创新力。虽然获得STEM博士学位的女性人数有所上升，但获得工程博士学位的女性比例仍然很低。2019年，尽管24.1%的工程博士学位由女性获得，但西班牙裔、黑人和美洲原住民女性（不包括夏威夷原住民/太平洋岛民女性）获得的博士学位仅为1.4%。工程学博士的流失率显示，在STEM领域历史上代表性不足的群体中，学生的流失率过高。问题不在于学生无法完成博士学位的要求，而是有才华的学生在完成博士学位之前就离开了工程博士课程。学生流失导致人才流失到推动美国经济增长的大学研究和发现的国家努力中。工程博士项目中不受欢迎的组织氛围可能会导致这种人员流失。本项目旨在研究工程博士项目的组织气候，以指导促进工程博士生的坚持和保留的努力。这个混合方法项目的目标是研究博士生对影响他们坚持完成学位的因素的看法，以及基于交叉的社会类别体验这些因素的差异。本项目采用明确的交叉方法来研究学生属于多个社会类别的意义和相关性，包括性别、种族/民族和性取向，在工程博士教育的背景下考虑。利用组织气候研究和交叉性理论，该项目的多学科团队旨在通过与来自不同群体的学生接触，使用以学生为中心的方法来阐明多种气候因素（例如，多样性气候、包容性气候、学生归属感等）。为了获得部门气候和持久性的全面图景，这可能因交叉组、专业和机构类型而异，在四年的项目期间计划了项目实施的迭代和互补周期。在第一年，研究人员的目标是利用定量试点气候调查方法的发现来为定性设计提供信息。该团队的目标是在二年级重复这一过程，以开发、完善和验证最终的调查工具，包括气候量表，该量表将足够敏感，以评估来自不同群体的学生特有的交叉现象。该量表将以测量不变性为基础，即在不同的群体中以相同的方式测量因素，以揭示工程博士学生群体之间的异同。在三年级和四年级，研究人员计划在全国范围内进行最终调查，并采用混合方法对调查对象的子样本进行后续访谈。该团队与美国工程教育学会合作，计划在全国范围内向工程博士生部署气候调查，并与工程学院院长分享调查结果。本项目由美国国家科学基金会EHR核心研究（ECR）项目支持。ECR项目强调在该领域产生基础知识的基础STEM教育研究。投资在至关重要、广泛和持久的关键领域：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大STEM参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。该项目支持积累有力的证据，为理解、建立理论解释、提出干预和创新建议提供依据。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。