Native Americans: An Exploratory Study Pinpointing the Factors That Influence Their Interests and Aspirations for Engineering Faculty Positions

本项目旨在加深对影响美国原住民或阿拉斯加原住民(以下简称美国原住民)参与工程学专业的因素的理解。根据NACME 2014年的一份报告，只有0.4%的工程师是印第安人，更少的工程学教师是印第安人。工程学教师通过提供积极的社会文化体验、榜样、指导和减少孤立的包容性学习环境，在吸引和留住学生方面发挥着重要作用。然而，人们对推动美洲原住民进入工程学教授或坚持担任工程学教员的因素知之甚少。这项研究将提供系统的证据，可能导致在为美洲原住民提供经验和支持方面的最佳做法，以鼓励他们攻读工程学教授学位，并将学院视为他们的职业之家。在工程专业招生人数减少的时代，加强多样性是长期增长和全球竞争力的关键。工程领域的多样性不仅是公平和公平的问题，也是工程努力的质量问题。培养人才和促进美洲原住民充分融入工程学教授队伍可以促进劳动力的多样性，以鼓励增长、创造力和创新，这是解决我们最紧迫的部落、国家和全球问题所必需的。迫切需要调查潜在的因素和它们之间的联系，以便在增加美洲原住民工程学教师数量方面取得有意义的进展。然而，缺乏先前系统的调查意味着，无法获得旨在挖掘潜在构造的研究方法和材料，也不存在作为更广泛调查基础的试点数据。因此，这项建议的总体目标有两个：1)在几个美国原住民工程专业学生和教师的样本中，包括来自明尼苏达州俄克拉何马州的参与者和美国印第安人与科学与工程学会(AISES)的成员，对假设因素及其之间的联系进行探索性的初步研究；2)开发方法和材料，为后续的横断面和纵向工作做准备。我们的中心假设是，有可识别的因素来解释美洲原住民进入工程学教授队伍并坚持下去，这些因素是可以通过定量、定性和混合方法来发现和获取的。我们的目标是招收美国原住民工程学本科生、研究生和教师，以捕捉他们通往和参与工程学教授之路的当前和回顾的看法。我们将收集和分析定性和定量数据，并以促进该领域基础知识的方式传播调查结果。通过这样做，我们将为随后关于扩大美洲原住民在工程学教员中的参与的研究奠定基础。

This project aims to develop a deeper understanding of the factors influencing Native American or Alaskan Native (hereafter referred to as Native American) participation in the engineering professorate. According to a 2014 NACME report, only 0.4% of engineers are Native American, and even fewer engineering faculty are Native American. Engineering faculty are important in attracting and retaining students by providing positive socio-cultural experiences, role modeling, mentorship, and inclusive learning environments that reduce isolation. However, little is known about the factors promoting Native Americans" entry into the engineering professorate or persistence as engineering faculty members. The research will provide systematic evidence that could lead to best practices in providing Native Americans with experiences and support to encourage them to pursue the engineering professorate and consider the academy as their professional home. In an era of decreased enrollment in engineering programs, enhancing diversity is key to long term growth and global competitiveness. Diversity in engineering fields is more than an issue of fairness and equity, but also of quality of the engineering endeavor. Cultivating the talent and promoting full inclusion of Native Americans in the engineering professorate can promote diversity in the workforce to encourage the growth, creativity, and innovation necessary to solving our most pressing tribal, national, and global problems. There is a critical need to investigate potential factors and the linkages among them to make meaningful progress toward increasing the number of Native American faculty in engineering. However, the lack of prior systematic investigations means that research methods and materials designed to tap underlying constructs are unavailable, and that pilot data on which to base more extended investigations are non-existent. Therefore, the overall objective of this proposal is two-fold: 1) to conduct an exploratory pilot study of hypothesized factors and the linkages among them in several samples of Native American engineering students and faculty, including participants from Oklahoma, Minnesota, and members of the American Indian and Science and Engineering Society (AISES), and 2) to develop methods and materials in preparation for subsequent cross-sectional and longitudinal work. Our central hypothesis is that there are identifiable factors that explain Native Americans' entry into and persistence in the engineering professorate, and that these factors are discoverable and accessible through quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods means. We aim to recruit Native American engineering undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty to capture current and retrospective perceptions of their journey toward and participation in the engineering professorate. We will collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data, and disseminate findings in ways that advance foundational knowledge of the field. In so doing, we will lay the groundwork for subsequent studies on broadening participation of Native Americans in the engineering faculty.