A Mixed-Methods Investigation into Underrepresentation in STEM

Bentley Lydia, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. The present research project is undertaken to explore the experiences of undergraduate engineering students who identify as members of under-represented minority (URM) groups. While several influences on URM students' post-secondary STEM experiences have been identified, there remain multiple under-explored aspects of URM engineering students' first two years in their programs. For example, there is an urgent need to deepen our understanding of what URM students are going through, as they are going through it, rather than simply in retrospect. In addition, there is room for further investigation into how multiple influences on their engineering experiences may be intertwined and may combine to impact students' development over the first two years of their college life. The current project helps to fill in these gaps in the existing knowledge base and will implicate ways to better support the success and wellbeing of URM engineering students in the future. This project, entitled, Engineering in process: A mixed methods investigation into URM undergraduate engineering students' first two years, will advance knowledge within the field of post-secondary STEM education in general, and engineering education in particular, by exploring potential influences on URM engineering students' experiences and trajectories during their first two years of college. These influences include the following: pre-college influences; interactions with college faculty and peers; social cognitive factors; and engagement with STEM learning opportunities and structures. This study combines ethnographic and longitudinal survey methodologies in order to uncover (a) the details and mechanisms of complex social and individual processes as they unfold in real-time in URM engineering students' academic lives and (b) the change over time in important influences on students' success in their engineering program. Research findings will illuminate the challenge of underrepresentation in STEM, specifically engineering, by providing a more holistic understanding of the experiences of URM students during their first two years in an engineering school and relating certain characteristics of URM students and their experiences to their persistence in, or exit from, this engineering program by sophomore year. Results of this study will also implicate potential next steps to create new (or enhance existing) structures that promote not only the persistence of URM engineering students but also their wellbeing and holistic success as measured by supportive social interactions, social cognitive factors (e.g., their sense of self-efficacy), and their engagement with learning opportunities.