Collaborative Research: The Organizational Climate Challenge: Promoting the Retention of Students from Underrepresented Groups in Doctoral Engineering Programs

工程学博士队伍持续缺乏多样性，这仍然是一个对美国经济具有深远影响的重大问题。美国劳动力的长期活力依赖于所有美国人都可以获得的全方位的工程职业道路。多元化的STEM员工队伍更具创造性和创新性。尽管完成STEM博士学位的女性人数有所增加，但获得工程学博士学位的女性比例仍然很低。2019年，虽然24.1%的工程学博士学位是由女性获得的，但只有1.4%的学位是由西班牙裔、黑人和美洲原住民女性(没有夏威夷/太平洋岛民原住民女性)获得的。博士工程学流失率显示，STEM历史上代表性不足的群体中的学生流失比例高得不成比例。问题不是学生无法完成博士学位要求，而是有才华的学生在完成博士学位之前就离开了工程学博士课程。学生流失导致人才流失，导致推动美国经济增长的大学的全国性研究和发现努力。工程学博士项目中不受欢迎的组织氛围可能是造成这种流失的原因。本项目旨在考察工程博士项目的组织氛围，以指导促进工程专业博士生持之以恒和留存的努力。该混合方法项目的目标是考察博士生对影响他们完成学位的持久度的因素的认知，以及基于交叉的社会类别在体验这些因素时的差异。该项目采用了一种明确的交叉方法，在工程学博士教育的背景下考虑学生属于多个社会类别，包括性别、种族/民族和性取向的意义和相关性。利用组织气候研究和交叉理论，该项目的多学科团队旨在使用以学生为中心的方法来阐明多种气候因素(例如，多样性的气候、包容的气候、学生的归属感等)。通过与来自不同群体的学生接触。为了全面了解各部门的气氛和持续性，可能因跨部门小组、专业和机构类型而有所不同，在四年项目期间规划了项目执行的迭代和补充周期。在第一年，研究人员的目标是使用定量试点气候调查方法的结果来为定性设计提供信息。该团队的目标是在第二年重复这一过程，以开发、改进和验证最终的调查工具，包括一个足够敏感的气候标尺，以评估来自不同群体的学生特有的交叉现象。该量表将建立在测量不变性的基础上，因为将在不同的群体中以相同的方式测量因素，以揭示工程学博士生群体之间的相似和差异。在第三年和第四年，研究人员计划在全国范围内进行最终调查，并使用混合方法对调查受访者中的一个子样本进行后续采访。该团队与美国工程教育学会合作，计划在全国范围内向工程学博士生部署气候调查，并与工程主任分享调查结果。该项目得到了NSF的EHR核心研究(ECR)计划的支持。ECR计划强调基础STEM教育研究，以产生该领域的基础知识。在基本、广泛和持久的关键领域进行投资：STEM学习和STEM学习环境，扩大STEM的参与，以及STEM劳动力发展。该计划支持积累强有力的证据，为理解、构建理论以解释和建议干预措施和创新来解决持续存在的问题提供信息。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。

The ongoing lack of diversity in the engineering doctoral workforce remains a significant problem with far-reaching implications for the US economy. The long-term vitality of the US workforce relies on the full range of engineering career pathways being available to all Americans. A diverse STEM workforce is more creative and innovative. While the number of women completing STEM doctorates has risen, the proportion of women earning engineering doctorates remains low. And, in 2019, while 24.1% of engineering doctorates were earned by women, only 1.4% were earned by Hispanic, Black, and Native American women (no Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander women). Doctoral engineering attrition rates reveal a disproportionately high loss of students from groups historically underrepresented in STEM. The problem is not students’ inability to complete the Ph.D. degree requirements, but rather that talented students leave engineering doctoral programs before completing their doctorates. Student attrition results in a loss of human talent to the national endeavor of research and discovery at universities fueling US economic growth. Unwelcoming organizational climates in engineering doctoral programs likely contribute to this attrition. This project aims to examine the organizational climates of engineering doctoral programs to guide efforts that promote the persistence and retention of doctoral students in engineering.The goal of this mixed-methods project is to examine doctoral students’ perceptions of the factors that impact their persistence in degree completion and the differences in experiencing those factors based on intersecting social categories. This project adopts an explicitly intersectional approach to the meaning and relevance of students’ belonging to multiple social categories, including gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation, considered within the context of engineering doctoral education. Drawing on organizational climate research and intersectionality theory, the project’s multidisciplinary team aims to use a student-centered approach to shed light on multiple climate factors (e.g., climate for diversity, climate for inclusion, student sense of belonging, etc.) by engaging with students from diverse groups. To achieve a comprehensive picture of departmental climate and persistence, which may differ by intersectional group, major, and institution type, iterative and complementary cycles of project implementation are planned over the four-year project period. In Year 1, the researchers aim to use findings from the quantitative pilot climate survey approach to inform the qualitative design. The team aims to repeat this process in Year 2 to develop, refine, and validate the final survey instrument, including a climate scale that will be sensitive enough to assess intersectional phenomena unique to students from diverse groups. The scale will be grounded in measurement invariance, in that factors will be measured in the same way across different groups to reveal similarities and differences between engineering doctoral student populations. In Years 3 and 4, the researchers plan to administer the final survey nationally and incorporate follow-up interviews with a subsample of survey respondents, using a mixed-methods approach. In partnership with the American Society for Engineering Education, the team plans to deploy the climate survey nationally to engineering doctoral students and to share survey findings with engineering deans.This project is supported by NSF's EHR Core Research (ECR) program. The ECR program emphasizes fundamental STEM education research that generates foundational knowledge in the field. Investments are made in critical areas that are essential, broad, and enduring: STEM learning and STEM learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. The program supports the accumulation of robust evidence to inform efforts to understand, build theory to explain, and suggest interventions and innovations to address persistent.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.