Research: Effects of Perceived Bias on Engineering Identity Development in the Graduate Student Community

North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC

Investigators

Abstract

This project seeks to address the high level of attrition from engineering graduate programs. Engineering identity, or how one perceives oneself as an engineer, is strongly tied to persistence in engineering training and practice. The three-year research effort will uncover how graduate engineering students perceive experiences of bias and the effect of perceived bias on their engineering identity. This research will help engineering educators understand the ways that perceived bias impacts engineering identity development and measure perceived bias in a large national sample of engineering graduate students. The project will advance the understanding of the obstacles that confront those with the talent and ability to become engineering professionals. It also aims to recognize the key role that engineering graduate education can play in advancing research and theory about how graduate students perceive biases and the ways in which they do (or do not) develop resiliency that buffers their negative experiences. The focus on graduate-level engineering education promises to enrich a general understanding of how experiences with bias may suppress and divert career aspirations, while at the same time providing insight into the specific circumstances of advanced training in engineering professions for those who are determined to endure. Past research on engineering identity, recruitment, retention, and bias has focused on undergraduate students, leaving little empirical evidence for understanding graduate experiences. In addition, bias research studies STEM fields collectively, whereas we plan to focus specifically on engineering and individual disciplines within engineering. The project is divided into three phases of research, which will: (1) qualitatively explore the lived experiences of minority graduate engineering students' perceived bias and its effect on engineering identity development, via interviews; (2) quantitatively measure the perceived bias experiences and engineering identity of engineering graduate students via a national survey; and (3) qualitatively evaluate the interpretations of data from previous phases and revisit initial participants' experiences of perceived bias using interviews and participant video diary accounts. These three phases of research will be guided by the following research questions: RQ1. How do engineering graduate students conceptualize their own identities, perceive their identities as minority, and experience perceived bias based on those identities and identity intersections? RQ2. How does existing as a minority in a graduate program and experiencing/perceiving bias affect engineering identity? How does intersectional identity affect engineering identity? RQ3. Are there experiences related to engineering identity that mitigate the effects of perceived bias? RQ4. Can existing identities support engineering identity development? If so, how can they be leveraged to support student persistence, performance, and participation? The goal is to generate empirical evidence that will: identify if/how perceived bias disrupts the development of an engineering identity, offer recommendations for best practices for reducing and mitigating bias, and suggest opportunities for bolstering engineering identity in engineering graduate programs and colleges. 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.