BPE-OT: Beyond the Basisc: Race and Gender Conscious Mentoring for Black Faculty Candidates in Engineering

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

This engineering education research project seeks to understand the degree to which intersectionality within the engineering academic profession has been addressed in minority mentoring initiatives for African American engineering doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers. Intersectionality is defined as the interplay of racial stereotypes, gender biases and other issues. A wide variety of mentoring programs in various formats have not been able to alter the slow progress of African Americans in engineering faculty ranks. This research will closely examine existing mentoring programs through a single focused lens of African American doctoral and postdoctoral scholars. The intent is to utilize focus groups, surveys and interviews to synthesize their experiences with mentoring programs. The PI will then design a holistic racial and gender attentive mentoring program that will be implemented on a national scale with approximately 120 participants. This effort will leverage a prior award to this PI focused on both identifying the barriers and opportunities facing African American engineering doctoral candidates aspiring to the professoriate, and the issues facing African American faculty at all ranks. The broader significance and importance of this project is the potential for development of a successful, holistic mentoring model that can be more broadly adapted to other racial/gender groups. A successful mentoring model should increase the persistence of underrepresented groups in the engineering academic ranks. Increasing the numbers of faculty role models from diverse backgrounds will create a more inclusive educational environment that will encourage an increasing number of diverse students to pursue engineering studies. This project overlaps with NSF's strategic goals of identifying, sharing and expanding best practices for broadening participation in the engineering workforce. NSF focuses on broadening participation of groups, institutions, and geographic regions underrepresented in STEM disciplines, working with academic and private sector partners to make certain that STEM education and workforce preparation, infrastructure, and research opportunities are broadly available to ensure that the technical workforce and scientists and engineers have the skills and opportunities needed to flourish in a global knowledge economy.