Documenting Experiences and Resources Supporting the Community College Transfer, Persistence, and Graduation of Black Engineering Students

虽然学者们经常关注K-12学校和四年制学院和大学在培养未来黑人工程师方面的作用，但人们对社区学院在支持这一未被充分代表的人口方面的影响知之甚少。考虑到大量黑人学生在进入四年制工程专业之前就读社区学院，了解社区学院的作用尤为重要。此外，有证据表明，在社区大学开始高等教育生涯的大量黑人工程专业学生实际上可能是来自撒哈拉以南非洲国家的第一代美国人。这项研究将阐明来自马里兰州社区大学的各种黑人工程准学生和当前转校生所引用的因素，这些因素对他们坚持专业的能力至关重要。该研究小组将领导一项为期三年的研究，研究对象是计划或已经从马里兰社区学院转到马里兰大学a . James Clark工程学院的美国黑人和非洲黑人本科生。在项目进行期间，研究团队不仅会询问研究参与者是什么导致了他们继续学习专业的能力，还会揭示在美国出生和接受教育的学生与在其他国家接受教育的学生在学术道路上的差异。在最近宣布的“共同建设”活动的背景下，该活动为马里兰大学提供了校园历史上最大的礼物，其中包括对工程转校生的具体支持，该项目与该州的克拉克学院和社区学院特别相关。此外，该项目还利用了马里兰州在为未来的转学生制定支持计划和政策方面已有的强大历史。通过这项研究，马里兰大学和马里兰州将在确定导致不同工程转校生产生的因素方面成为全国的领导者。这项研究建立在越来越多的工程教育和高等教育文献研究的基础上，这些研究强调了社区大学经历对STEM学生的中心地位。该项目还利用了最近在教育和社会科学奖学金方面的研究成果，揭示了记录被广泛归类为黑人或非裔美国人的学生群体内差异的重要性。总的来说，这些作品揭示了代表非洲侨民不同地区的学生在K-12和学院/大学经历中的显著差异。在这些研究的基础上，这个项目的研究小组将研究不同的黑人大学生在从马里兰两年制大学转到马里兰大学a .詹姆斯·克拉克工程学院之前、期间和之后成功的关键因素。该团队将采用纵向设计，使他们能够在工程管道的多个点上研究三组学生。主要使用定性方法，包括焦点小组和访谈，研究人员将使用系统和归纳编码方法分析文本，以确定在整个研究中始终出现的突出主题。为了阐明两个截然不同的黑人群体——在美国出生和接受教育的黑人和在撒哈拉以南非洲地区出生和接受教育的黑人——的学术经历，该团队将制定单独的访谈和焦点小组协议，以反映两个群体之间潜在的趋同和分歧领域。项目成果的广泛传播将通过网站、宣传册和一次或多次网络研讨会，以及与代表该国不同地区的主要利益攸关方的接触来完成。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。

While scholars have often focused on the role of K-12 schools and four-year colleges and universities in the production of future Black engineers, far less is known about the impact of community colleges in regard to their ability to support this underrepresented population. Understanding the role of community colleges is particularly important, given the large numbers of Black students that enroll in these schools prior to transitioning to four-year engineering programs. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that a substantial number of Black engineering students who start their postsecondary careers at community colleges may in fact be first-generation Americans from sub-Saharan African countries. This study will illuminate factors that are cited by diverse Black engineering prospective and current transfer students from Maryland community colleges as critical to their ability to persist in their majors. The research team will lead a three-year study of cohorts of Black American and Black African undergraduates who plan to or have already transferred from a Maryland community college to the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. Over the duration of the project, the team will not only query the study participants about what has led to their ability to continue in their majors, but will also reveal differences between the academic paths of students born and educated in the U.S., compared to those who were educated in another country. In the context of the recent announcement of the Building Together campaign, which afforded the University of Maryland the largest gift in the history of the campus and which includes specific support for engineering transfer students, this project is especially relevant for the Clark School and community colleges in the state. Furthermore, the project leverages the already strong history that the state of Maryland has with regard to developing support programs and policies for prospective transfer students. Through this study, the University and state of Maryland will be poised to become national leaders in identifying factors that lead to the production of diverse engineering transfer students. This research study builds upon the growing number of studies in engineering education and higher education literature that highlight the centrality of the community college experience to STEM students. The project also leverages recent works in education and social science scholarship that reveal the importance of documenting within-group differences among students broadly classified as Black or African American. Collectively, these works reveal noteworthy differences in the K-12 and college/university experiences of students who represent various areas of the African diaspora. Foregrounded by these studies, the research team in this project will examine factors cited by diverse Black collegians as crucial to their success before, during, and after transfer from a Maryland two-year college to the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. The team will employ a longitudinal design that will enable them to study three cohorts of students at multiple points along the engineering pipeline. Using primarily qualitative methods that include focus groups and interviews, researchers will analyze transcripts using systematic and inductive coding methods to identify prominent themes that consistently appear throughout the study. In order to explicate the academic experiences of two distinct Black populations - Blacks born and educated in the U.S. and Blacks born and educated in sub-Saharan African contexts - the team will develop separate interview and focus group protocols that reflect potential areas of convergence and divergence between the two populations. Broad dissemination of project results will be accomplished through a website, brochure, and one or more webinars, as well as engagement with key stakeholders representing diverse regions of the country.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.