Research Initiation: The Influences of Engineering and Science Identities among Faculty in the Mentoring of Graduate Students

每个人都有一个复杂的身份，受到各种因素的影响，如性别、种族、社会经济地位和背景。此外，个人所扮演的角色，如兼任研究科学家和工程师的研究工程师，对不同个人的身份认同有不同程度的贡献。虽然之前的研究已经表明了导师身份在导师-被辅导者关系中的重要性，但还没有具体的研究集中于工程和研究身份对研究工程师之间的这些关系的贡献。本研究旨在探讨工程研究导师(ERM)身份认同的不同层面，在本研究中，ERM是指研究型大学的工程教师。该项目旨在了解身份的这些方面如何影响企业资源管理机构采用的指导方法。最终目标是加强学术工程研究环境中的指导实践，解决博士生未能完成学位等问题。该项目的研究启动目标是对首席研究人员(PI)进行混合方法研究方面的培训，并支持他们在工程教育研究方面的第一个资助项目。这不仅将使PI在未来的研究中取得成功，还将为那些已经概念化的研究奠定基础。本项目的研究目标将是了解工程研究导师如何根据他们自认为是工程师和/或研究科学家的程度而不同地处理导师与被辅导者的关系。本提案中提出的总体研究问题是：工程身份(EI)和研究科学身份(RSI)的优势如何在工程研究导师与学员的关系中发挥作用？为了回答这个问题，我们将通过一项带有显性问题和内隐关联测试的调查，量化工程研究导师的EI和RSI，然后进行深入的定性访谈，具体目的如下：1)获得ERM中EI和RSI的测量并探索影响因素，2)确定ERM的显性和隐性身份测量在多大程度上一致，以及3)了解这些身份在ERM的指导关系中的可操作性。通过这些目标，本研究将试图回答以下四个研究问题：RQ1：ERM的外显EI和显性RSI的分布是什么？RQ2：ERM的内隐EI-RSI认同偏向的分布是什么？RQ3：EI-RSI认同偏差的显性测量和隐性测量之间有什么一致性？RQ4：身份认同和身份偏见如何在ERM的导师-学员关系中发挥作用？这项工作的独创性在于：从这些步骤获得的数据将是在研究不足的ERM组中首次测量EI和RSI；这项工作将获得任何工程师组中第一次隐含的EI和RSI测量；这些测量将指导定性访谈并为研究结果提供有意义的背景。更深入地了解ERM自身的职业身份如何影响她/他的指导，将为改善指导和完善指导培训计划创造机会。通过项目设计和导师发展改善指导的干预措施将有利于学生的招生、留住和成功，所有这些都将支持扩大参与工程的努力。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 person has a complex identity shaped by various factors such as their gender, race, socio-economic status, and background. Additionally, the roles individuals hold, like that of research engineers who also serve as research scientists and engineers, contribute to their identity in differing amounts for different individuals. While previous research has shown the significance of a mentor's identity in mentor-mentee relationships, no specific studies have focused on the contributions of engineering and research identities to these relationships among research engineers. This research project aims to explore different aspects of identity in Engineering Research Mentors (ERMs), who in this study refer to engineering faculty at research universities. The project aims to understand how these aspects of identity influence the mentoring approaches adopted by ERMs. The ultimate goal is to enhance mentoring practices in academic engineering research settings, addressing issues such as PhD students failing to complete their degrees. Fully integrated in this project is the research initiation objective to train the Principal Investigator (PI) in mixed-methods research and support their first funded project in engineering education research. This will not only enable the PI to succeed in future studies but also lay the foundation for those studies that have already been conceptualized.The research goal of this project will be to understand how engineering research mentors approach mentor-mentee relationships differently based on the degree to which they identify as engineers and/or research scientists. The overall research question asked in this proposal is: How do the strengths of Engineering Identity (EI) and Research Science Identity (RSI) operationalize in Engineering Research Mentors’ relationships with mentees? To answer this question, we will quantify EI and RSI in engineering research mentors through a survey with explicit questions and an implicit association test, followed by in-depth qualitative interviews, with the following specific aims: 1) Obtain measurements of EI and RSI in ERMs and explore contributory factors, 2) Determine to what extent an ERM’s explicit and implicit measures of identity agree, and 3) Understand the operationalization of these identities in the ERM’s mentoring relationships. Through these aims, the study will seek to answer the following four research questions: RQ1: What is the distribution of explicit EI and explicit RSI of ERMs? RQ2: What is the distribution of implicit EI–RSI identity bias of ERMs? RQ3: What is the agreement between explicit and implicit measurements of EI–RSI identity bias? RQ4: How do identity and identity bias operationalize in ERMs’ mentor-mentee relationships? This work is original in that: data obtained from these steps will be the first ever measurements of EI and RSI in the understudied group of ERMs; this work will obtain the first implicit measurements of EI and RSI in any group of engineers; and these measurements will both guide qualitative interviews and provide meaningful context to the findings. Deeper understanding of how an ERM’s own professional identities affect her/his mentoring will create opportunities for improved mentorship and refined mentorship-training programs. Interventions to improve mentoring through program design and mentor development will benefit student recruitment, retention, and success, all of which will support efforts to broaden participation in engineering.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.