Study of New Strategies to Combat Harassment in Engineering

新墨西哥州立大学（NMSU）的研究人员将实施EHR核心研究（ECR）计划研究项目。该ECR项目支持推进STEM学习和学习环境基础研究、扩大STEM参与和STEM劳动力发展的工作。该研究将评估旁观者干预训练——在大学和美国军队等其他环境中是一种成功的方法——是否以及如何被改进、调整和交付，以减少性骚扰和改变工程领域的制度氛围。该研究将包括两个多方法的实地研究。在实地研究中，研究人员将在两所大学校园（新密西根州立大学和新罕布什尔大学）聘请工程学院教师作为自己学生的旁观者培训师，以评估他们的参与是否能促进更大的打击骚扰的承诺，正如Dobbin等人在组织变革中的管理参与方法（2015）所预测的那样。拟议的研究将有助于科学地了解有效的基于规范的策略的组成部分和条件，以减少工程工作场所的骚扰和鼓励旁观者干预。研究人员将采用焦点小组和调查的方法来探讨教师和学生参与作为工程学院提供旁观者培训和作为工程专业学生接受工程学院的培训对他们的影响。这项研究预计将为打击对弱势群体的骚扰提供策略，这些群体在工程领域的代表性通常不足，比如女性工程师、有色人种工程师和LGBTQ工程师。这两个校区在工程专业招收了大量第一代和未被充分代表的少数族裔学生。实地研究将说明如何培养领导者对改变工程环境的承诺，以及如何修改工程专业课程，以增加不同个人的保留率和他们的专业信心。虽然该项目主要由ECR计划资助，但工程理事会扩大工程参与（BPE）计划也提供了额外的支持。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。

Researchers from New Mexico State University (NMSU) will implement an EHR Core Research (ECR) program research project. This ECR program supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The study will assess whether and how bystander intervention training - a successful approach in other contexts such as universities and the U.S. military - can be refined, adapted, and delivered to reduce sexual harassment and change institutional climates in engineering. The study will include two multi-method field studies. In the field studies, the researchers will engage engineering faculty as bystander trainers of their own students on two university campuses (NMSU and University of New Hampshire) to assess whether their involvement fosters greater commitment to combat harassment, as predicted by the Dobbin et al. managerial engagement approach to organizational change (2015). The proposed research will contribute to scientific knowledge about the components and conditions of effective norm-based strategies to reduce harassment and encourage bystander intervention in the engineering workplace.The researchers will use focus groups and surveys to explore the impact on faculty and students of their participation in providing bystander training as engineering faculty and receiving the training from engineering faculty as engineering students. The research is expected to inform strategies to combat harassment against vulnerable individuals which are typically underrepresented in engineering, such as engineers that are women, engineers of color, and LGBTQ engineers. The two campuses have significant enrollment of first generation and underrepresented minority students in engineering. The field studies will illustrate how to foster leaders' commitment to change engineering climates and how to modify the engineering professional curriculum to increase the retention of diverse individuals and their professional confidence. While this project is primarily funded by the ECR program, additional support has been provided by the Directorate for Engineering's Broadening Participation in Engineering (BPE) program.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.