Collaborative Research: Supporting the Whole Student: Identifying and Mitigating Barriers to Persistence for Underserved Post-Traditional Engineering Students

虽然有关于提高黑人，拉丁裔和经济上处于不利地位的学生在工程学中的保留率的重要研究，但这些研究通常不考虑与后传统学生相关的因素。传统的学生是18-24岁，第一次在大学，全日制注册，并住在校园里。另一方面，后传统学生可以被识别为以下一个或多个因素：25岁或以上，兼职，工作以支持自己或家人，和/或通勤学生。考虑这些因素是重要的，因为它们增加了工程服务不足的人群的显著复杂性（即，黑人、拉丁裔和经济上处于不利地位的学生），而且因为后传统的本科生现在占学院和大学学生的大多数。这一人口变化在高等教育文献中为这一群体产生了一个新的术语：“后传统”学生。 “后传统”而不是“非传统”承认，这一人口现在代表了一种新的常态，这些大学生不再是一个畸变。与NSF扩大参与工程目标和目标人口，沿着这些人口在高等教育中的变化，需要转变，以了解后传统因素如何影响黑人，拉丁裔和经济上处于不利地位的学生。这个项目将收集和分析来自三个种族和民族对比鲜明的机构的服务不足后传统工程本科生的数据。该项目将产生广泛的影响;后传统的学生在所有机构，需要创造性的支持，他们的需求是已知的，如果没有人问。这项研究将采取变革性的方法，不仅要了解这些需求，还要让教职员工与学生合作寻找解决方案。这将导致新的计划和政策，工程界可以实施，以及在未来的研究评估。资源和调查结果将与机构合作伙伴，如美国工程教育协会和美国教育理事会，以确保调查结果都被广泛理解和实施。这个变革性的周期性混合方法研究的目标将是双重的。首先，试图了解影响服务不足的后传统工程本科生的保留和持续性的因素。其次，旨在确定工程项目可以实施的战略，以更加包容和响应这些学生的需求。基于这些目标，本文将回答以下研究问题：1）哪些因素影响了后传统学生在工程专业的保留率？（数量）;以及2）对于他们坚持追求四年制工程学位，服务不足的后传统学生的经历和观点是什么？（定性）。这项研究是由工程教育中的合作课程支持（MCCS），学生作为合作伙伴的概念模型，和交叉性模型。这项为期三年的研究将在三个种族和民族不同的机构进行：1）一个大型的公共西班牙裔服务机构; 2）一个小型的私人历史黑人学院/大学; 3）一个大型的公共白色为主的机构。定量方法将收集机构数据集，并收集学生和教师/工作人员的调查答复。多阶段的定性研究设计将包括焦点小组与学生了解他们的观点。它还将涉及利益相关者的行动会议，学生和教师/工作人员一起工作，共同产生政策和实践的建议。这项研究的一个关键成果将是一个大型数据集后传统的学习者从这些机构，其中将包括几个后传统的变量比通过中场工程数据文件。该数据集还将使团队和未来的项目能够根据适用于他们的后传统变量的数量来阐明学生群体之间的差异。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

While there has been important research on improving retention for Black, Latinx, and economically disadvantaged students in engineering, these studies typically do not account for factors associated with being a post-traditional student. Traditional students are 18-24, First Time in College, enrolled full-time, and reside on campus. On the other hand, post-traditional students can be identified with one or more of the following factors: being 25 years of age or older, enrolled part-time, working to support oneself or family, and/or a commuter student. Consideration of these factors is important both because they add significant complexities for a population that is already underserved in engineering (i.e., Black, Latinx, and economically disadvantaged learners), and because post-traditional undergraduates now comprise the majority of students in colleges and universities. This population shift has given rise to a new term in higher education literature for this group: “Post-traditional” students. “Post-traditional” instead of “non-traditional” acknowledges that this population now represents a new normal and that these undergraduates are no longer an aberration. Aligned with the NSF Broadening Participation in Engineering goals and target demographics, along with these population changes in higher education, a shift is needed to understand how post-traditional factors impact Black, Latinx, and economically disadvantaged students. This project will collect and analyze data on underserved post-traditional engineering undergraduates from three racially and ethnically contrasting institutions. The project will have wide implications; post-traditional students are in all institutions and need creative support, and their needs are known if no one asks. This research will take a transformative approach to not only understand those needs but also position faculty and staff to partner with students to find solutions. This should lead to novel programs and policies that the engineering community can implement as well as evaluate in future studies. Resources and findings will be disseminated with institutional partners such as American Society for Engineering Education and American Council on Education to ensure findings are both widely understood and implemented.The goals of this transformative cyclical mixed methods research study will be two-fold. First, seek to understand factors that impact the retention and persistence of underserved post-traditional undergraduates in engineering. Second, aim to identify strategies that engineering programs can implement to be more inclusive of and responsive to these students’ needs. Motivated by these goals, the following research questions will be answered: 1) What factors impact underserved post-traditional students’ retention in engineering? (Quantitative); and 2) What are underserved post-traditional students’ experiences and perspectives regarding their persistence in pursuit of four-year engineering degrees? (Qualitative). The study is informed by the Model of Co-Curricular Support (MCCS) in engineering education, the students-as-partners conceptual model, and intersectionality. This three-year study will be conducted across three racially and ethnically different institutions: 1) A large public Hispanic-Serving Institution; 2) A small private Historically Black College/University; 3) A large public predominately White institution. A quantitative approach will assemble institutional data sets and collect survey responses from both students and faculty/staff. The multi-phase qualitative research design will consist of focus groups with students to understand their perspectives. It will also involve stakeholder action meetings in which students and faculty/staff work together to collaboratively generate recommendations for policy and practice. A key outcome from this study will be a large dataset on post-traditional learners from these institutions, which will include several more post-traditional variables than are available through the MIDFIELD engineering data file. The dataset will also allow the team and future projects to illuminate differences across student populations depending on the number of post-traditional variables that apply to them.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.