Research Initiation : Exploring First Generation Engineering Technology College Students Acquisition of the Engineering Identity

每年，工程专业的学生都会进入大学学习，以获得知识和发展技能，为他们在该领域的职业生涯做准备。这些学生在接受工程教育期间的成功和经历，塑造了他们从“工科学生”向“工程师”转变时，在专业中对自己的看法。虽然每个学生获得工程师身份的过程看起来都不同，但当工科学生身份与其他身份交叉时，会出现一定的复杂性，包括那些面临独特挑战的人，如第一代学生。与连续一代的同龄人不同，第一代学生是他们家族中第一个上大学的人，他们正在朝着工程师的身份迈进，同时他们正在学习如何驾驭高等教育的复杂结构和术语。这些身份影响着学生如何理解他们在工程专业中的地位。此外，学生注册的课程类型可能会影响学生如何概念化和巩固工程师身份。工程技术课程历来与工程教育的实践性更强联系在一起。因此，与工程科学专业的同龄人相比，工程技术专业学生获得工程师身份的过程可能看起来不同。本研究将探讨第一代学生和工程技术专业学生这两种身份如何交集，从而影响工程师身份的形成。这一目标与工程师职业形成的研究直接一致，该研究试图更好地理解工程教育计划如何培养未来的工程师。该项目的研究设计是一个两阶段、混合方法的方法。在第一阶段，我们将对两年制和四年制院校的大约500名工程技术专业学生进行调查。答复将解决以下研究问题：自我认同的第一代工程技术学生如何概念化和巩固工程师身份，作为其跨院校教育的一部分，并解决第一代参与者如何理解和利用各种形式的社会资本来追求他们的工程学位，而不是继续一代的同龄人。此外，绩效指标数据将通过北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校的机构有效性办公室为同意参与的当地参与者获得和识别，以此作为调查同一项目中第一代工程技术学生和后续一代同龄人之间是否存在差异的一种方式。在第二阶段，我们将对35名第一代工程技术专业的学生进行定性访谈，以确保对他们的经历有更丰富的了解。这种迭代方法将使我们能够确定第一阶段的潜在差距，而第二阶段的定性工作将扩大我们对工程师身份获取过程的理解。这个项目的主要目标是为工程教育研究人员提供的不断增长的知识体系做出贡献。目前，探索在第一代学生中巩固工程师身份的研究有限。目前还没有研究在工程技术专业的学生中探讨这一现象。我们希望利用我们的研究开始弥合这一知识鸿沟，并将我们的发现广泛传播给其他工程教育工作者，他们服务于支持第一代工程技术学生在工程专业中概念化自己的位置。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Each year engineering students enroll in college to gain knowledge and develop skills in preparation for their careers in the field. The successes and experiences of these students within their engineering education shape how they see themselves within the profession as they transition from “engineering student” to “engineer”. While the process of acquiring the engineer identity looks different for every student, there are certain complexities that emerge when the engineering student identity is intersected with other identities, including those that face unique challenges such as first-generation. Unlike continuing-generation peers, first-generation students who are the first in their families to attend college are progressing toward the engineer identity at the same time they are learning to navigate the landscape of higher education with its complex structures and jargon. These identities influence how students understand their position within engineering programs. Furthermore, the type of program a student enrolls in may impact how a student conceptualizes and consolidates the engineer identity. Engineering technology programs have historically been associated with a more hands-on approach to engineering education. As such, the process of acquiring the engineer identity may look different for engineering technology students compared to peers in engineering science programs. This study will explore the question of how these two identities: first-generation and engineering technology students intersect to influence the formation of the engineer identity. This goal is directly aligned with research in the professional formation of engineers which seeks to better understand how engineering education programs develop future engineers.The research design for this project is a two phase, mixed methods approach. In Phase 1, we will survey approximately 500 engineering technology students across two and four-year institutions. Responses will address the research questions of how self-identified first-generation engineering technology students conceptualize and consolidate the engineer identity as part of their education across institutions, as well as address how first-generation participants understand and leverage forms of social capital in pursuit of their engineering degree as compared to continuing-generation peers. Additionally, performance metric data will be obtained and de-identified through the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at UNC Charlotte for local participants who have consented to participate as a way to investigate whether discrepancies exist between first-generation engineering technology students and continuing-generation peers in the same program. In Phase 2, we will employ qualitative interviews with a diverse group of 35 first generation engineering technology students to secure a richer understanding of their experiences. This iterative approach will allow us to identify potential gaps in Phase 1 while the qualitative work in Phase 2 will then expand our understanding of the engineer identity acquisition process. The primary goal of this project is to contribute to the growing body of knowledge provided by engineering education researchers. At present, there is limited research exploring the consolidation of the engineer identity among first-generation students. No existing study has explored this phenomenon with engineering technology students. We hope to leverage our research to begin to close this knowledge gap and to disseminate our findings widely to other engineering educators who serve to support first-generation engineering technology students as they conceptualize their place within the engineering profession.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.