Learning from the PROSE: Exploring professional organizations' role in supporting Black engineering student success

尽管联邦政府投入了数百万美元以扩大学生的参与度，但黑人学生在工科各个级别的比例仍然偏低。现有的研究不仅提供了本科工程学位完成障碍的证据，还揭示了对成绩优异的黑人学生的学业成绩产生积极影响的因素。在校园里更多地融入社会和意识到自己的种族身份等因素是其中之一；参与校园内某些类型的专业组织为这两个因素的发生提供了背景。作为从散文中学习(支持卓越的专业组织)的一部分，这项研究的目的是了解学生参与与身份相关的组织--如全国黑人工程师协会(NSBE)和组成国家泛希腊理事会(NPHC)的组织--如何帮助成功完成工程课程。这个项目的重点是那些已经成功完成本科教育的人的经历，即黑人工程学研究生。这项研究的发现将促进我们对与身份相关的组织在促进工程学中最少代表的群体之一成功方面所发挥的独特作用的理解。对毕业于一系列机构的黑人工程研究生的明确关注使我们能够在不同的背景下深入探索类似的动态。通过扩展，这将使我们能够制定一套强有力的战略，支持各级教育中的少数族裔学生，加强专业组织的努力，使其与他们身份的各个方面保持一致，并阐明通往教授的道路。尽管黑人约占美国人口的13%，是美国人口增长最快的群体之一，但在2015-2016学年，他们在本科、硕士和博士级别的工程学学位获得者中所占比例不到4.4%。这项工作将向成功驾驭工程环境并自选继续攻读工程研究生项目的布莱克工程研究生学习。以共同课程支持和社区文化财富模式为理论基础，这项定性和基于视频的研究项目将调查本科生参与识别相关组织如何有助于他们的工程项目的成功导航。更具体地说，这个项目旨在调查专业组织提供关键的专业和心理社会支持的机制，这些支持有助于黑人工程学学生的发展和成功，采用三个阶段的方法：进行系统的文献审查，进行现象学访谈，探索新的传播方式。虽然现有的研究通常是在进入本科工程课程期间调查这种经历，但使用现象学方法，本研究采取了一个全面和反思性的观点，只有在经历结束后才能获得。此外，依靠定性方法和基于视频的方法相结合，为以传统和新的方式传播研究成果提供了基础。这项研究将从黑人工程专业学生的角度揭示访问网络和支持系统的关键方面，这些学生表现出了坚持不懈的态度，同时强调了现有校园项目之间的合作机会，这些机会可能会促进从孤立的方法转变为支持学生成功。这项研究还将通过对同时参与多个与身份相关的专业组织的意义的初步调查来发展知识。从这项调查中发现的见解可能会对其他代表性不足的群体(如Latinx、LGBTQ、转学学生等)产生影响。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。

Despite millions of federal investments to broaden participation, Black students continue to be underrepresented at all levels of engineering. Existing research not only provides evidence of the barriers to undergraduate engineering degree completion, it also reveals factors that positively influence the academic outcomes of high-achieving Black students. Factors like being more socially integrated on campus and being conscious of one's racial identity are among them; and involvement in certain types of professional organizations on campus provide a context for both of these factors to occur. As part of Learning from the PROSE (Professional Organizations Supporting Excellence), the aim of this study is to understand how students' engagement with identity-related organizations - like the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and those that makeup the National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC)- contributes to the successful completion of engineering programs. This project is focusing on the experiences of those who have already successfully completed their undergraduate education, namely Black graduate engineering students. The findings from this study will advance our understanding of the unique role identity-related organizations play in promoting the success of one of the least represented groups in engineering. The explicit focus on Black engineering graduate students who have graduated from a range of institutions allows us to deeply explore similar dynamics in different contexts. By extension, this will allows us to develop a robust set of strategies for supporting minority students at all levels of education, reinforce the efforts of professional organizations that align with various dimensions of their identity, and shed light on pathways to the professoriate.Although Black people represent approximately 13% of the U.S. population and are one of the fastest growing demographics in the nation, they made up less than 4.4% of engineering degree recipients at the undergraduate, Master's and doctoral levels during the 2015-2016 academic year. This work will learn from Black engineering graduate students that have successfully navigated engineering environments and self-selected to continue study in a graduate engineering program. Using the Model of Co-Curricular Support and Community Cultural Wealth as theoretical underpinnings, this qualitative and video-based research project will investigate how engagement in identify-related organizations as undergraduate students contributed to the successful navigation of their engineering programs. More specifically, this project aims to investigate the mechanisms by which professional organizations provide the critical professional and psychosocial support that contribute to the development and success of Black engineering students using a three-phase approach: performing a systematic literature review, conducting phenomenological interviews, and exploring novel means of dissemination. Although existing research typically investigates such experiences while being enrolled in undergraduate engineering programs, using a phenomenological approach, this study takes a comprehensive and reflective view that can only be obtained after the experience is over. Moreover, relying on a mixture of qualitative and video-based methods provides the basis for disseminating the research findings in traditional and novel ways. This study will uncover critical aspects of access to networks and support systems from the perspective of Black engineering students that have demonstrated persistence while highlighting partnership opportunities among existing on-campus programs that could promote a shift away from the siloed approaches to supporting student success. This study will also develop knowledge by serving as an initial investigation into the significance of engaging in multiple identity-related professional organizations simultaneously. Insights emerging from this investigation will likely have implications for other underrepresented groups (e.g., Latinx, LGBTQ, transfer students, etc).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.