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: 2201100
• 负责人: Nicole Else-Quest
• 金额: $ 21.48万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 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=2201100&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 that 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 interventions 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重大问题，对美国经济产生深远影响。美国劳动力的长期活力依赖于所有美国人都可以获得的全方位工程职业途径。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增加，但获得工程博士学位的女性比例仍然很低。而且，在2019年，虽然24.1%的工程博士学位是由女性获得的，但只有1.4%是由西班牙裔，黑人和美洲原住民女性获得的（没有夏威夷原住民/太平洋岛民女性）。博士工程流失率表明，来自STEM历史上代表性不足的群体的学生流失率高得不成比例。问题不在于学生无法完成博士学位。这是一个很好的解决办法，因为它不符合学位要求，而是有才华的学生在完成博士学位之前就离开工程博士课程。学生流失导致人才流失到大学的研究和发现的国家奋进，推动美国经济增长。工程博士课程中不受欢迎的组织气候可能会导致这种减员。本研究旨在考察工科类博士生培养项目的组织氛围，为促进工科类博士生的持续性和保留率提供指导。本研究的目的是考察工科类博士生对影响其持续完成学位的因素的认知，以及基于交叉社会类别体验这些因素的差异。该项目采用了明确的交叉方法，在工程博士教育的背景下考虑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。借鉴组织气候研究和交叉性理论，该项目的多学科团队旨在使用以学生为中心的方法来阐明多个气候因素（例如，多样性的氛围，包容性的氛围，学生的归属感等）通过与来自不同群体的学生互动。为了全面了解部门气候和持久性，这可能因交叉群体、专业和机构类型而异，计划在四年项目期内进行反复和互补的项目实施周期。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结果来为定性设计提供信息。该团队的目标是在第二年重复这一过程，以开发，完善和验证最终的调查工具，包括气候尺度，这将是足够敏感的，以评估独特的交叉现象，学生从不同的群体。该量表将以测量不变性为基础，因为这些因素将以相同的方式在不同的群体中进行测量，以揭示工程博士生群体之间的相似性和差异性。在第3年和第4年，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受访者的子样本进行后续采访。该团队与美国工程教育协会合作，计划在全国范围内向工程博士生开展气候调查，并与工程系主任分享调查结果。该项目得到了NSF EHR核心研究（ECR）计划的支持。ECR计划强调基础STEM教育研究，产生该领域的基础知识。投资集中在重要、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。该计划支持积累强有力的证据，为理解、建立理论解释和建议干预措施和创新以解决持续性问题提供信息。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。