Understanding PhD Career Pathways: Transitions and Persistence in the PhD-Prepared STEM Workforce

研究生院委员会将审查来自美国70个不同博士机构网络的有关科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）博士职业抱负和校友成果的数据。拟议的项目将进行一项调查，以研究影响STEM职业的保留和持久性以及就业部门之间的转换的个人和环境因素。该项目的基本假设是，个人属性（如自我效能感和职业价值观）以及环境因素（如STEM工作场所的组织氛围）可以解释早期和中期STEM博士学位持有者的工作转换和坚持。该项目将有助于了解在STEM博士教育完成期间和之后，这些个人属性和对环境因素的看法如何随着各种社会化、文化适应和专业化过程而变化。该项目回应了最近的研究，通过实证记录社会化、文化适应和专业化活动如何影响STEM劳动力的职业发展，发现对STEM学术职业的兴趣下降，对研究生院经历的满意度下降。该项目还分离了旨在提高STEM持久性的政策干预的潜在途径。基于职业锚和社会认知职业理论，该研究将采用混合方法设计来调查三个研究问题：(1)包括参与各种职业和专业发展活动，以及之前作为临时教员和/或博士后实习生的就业在内的因素如何解释STEM博士校友在STEM教授或其他STEM工作场所的坚持和转变？(2)包括参与各种职业和专业发展活动，以及之前/现在作为临时教员和/或博士后实习生的就业在内的因素，如何解释博士科学家和工程师对STEM领域组织氛围和文化的看法？(3)个人因素，包括参与各种职业和专业发展活动，以及之前作为临时教师和/或博士后实习生的就业，以及对STEM领域组织气候和文化的看法，如何影响STEM博士校友和学生在STEM领域内外的就业部门的职业转变？研究人员将对2500多名校友和4000多名学生参与者进行后续调查，这些学生参与了当前的“理解STEM项目中博士职业道路的改进”项目，并对有目的的调查受访者样本进行了半结构化的定性访谈。收集数据后，研究人员将进行逻辑回归，以确定哪些协变量最能解释STEM领域的持续和转变。该项目将产生可以指导投资和战略的数据，以支持STEM职业发展。本项目由EHR核心研究（ECR）计划，STEM专业劳动力发展主题支持。ECR资助的基础研究项目涉及STEM学习和学习环境、扩大STEM参与和STEM劳动力发展。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。

The Council of Graduate Schools will examine data about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) PhD career aspirations and alumni outcomes from a network of 70 diverse U.S. doctoral institutions. The proposed project will conduct a survey to examine individual and environmental factors that influence retention and persistence in STEM careers and transitions between employment sectors. The underlying assumption of the project is that individual attributes such as self-efficacy and career values, as well as environmental factors such as organizational climate of the STEM workplace, could explain job transitions and persistence of early- and mid-career STEM doctorate holders. The project will contribute to knowledge about how these individual attributes and perceptions of environmental factors might change with various socialization, acculturation, and professionalization processes during and after the STEM doctoral education is completed. The project responds to recent studies that uncover declining interest in STEM academic careers and decreasing satisfaction with graduate school experiences by empirically documenting how socialization, acculturation, and professionalization activities may affect career progression in the STEM workforce. The project also isolates potential avenues for policy interventions designed to increase STEM persistence.Grounded in career anchor and social cognitive career theory, the study will employ a mixed-methods design to investigate three research questions: (1) How do factors, including participation in various career and professional development activities, as well as prior employment as contingent faculty and/or postdoctoral trainee, explain persistence and transitions of STEM PhD alumni in the STEM professoriate or other STEM workplaces? (2) How do factors, including participation in various career and professional development activities, as well as prior/current employment as contingent faculty and/or postdoctoral trainee, explain perceptions about organizational climate and culture in STEM fields among doctoral scientists and engineers? and (3) How do individual factors, including participation in various career and professional development activities, as well as prior employment as contingent faculty and/or postdoctoral trainee, as well as perceptions about organizational climate and culture in STEM fields, influence career transitions of STEM PhD alumni and students across employment sectors in and out of STEM fields? Researchers will conduct a follow-up survey of more than 2,500 alumni and 4,000 student participants in the current Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement in STEM project and include semi-structured qualitative interviews of a purposeful sample of survey respondents. Having collected the data, the researchers will run logistic regressions to determine which covariates are most informative for explaining STEM field persistence and transitions. The project will produce data that can guide investments and strategies to support STEM career development.This project is supported by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, STEM professional workforce development theme. ECR funds fundamental research projects that address STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.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.