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Recent reports indicate that there are less than 1900 (0.6%) Native American undergraduate and graduate engineering students nationwide (Yoder, 2016). Although Native Americans are underrepresented in the field of engineering, there is very little research that explores the contributing factors. The purpose of our exploratory research is to identify the barriers, supports, and personal strengths that Native American engineering students identify as being influential in developing their career interests and aspirations in engineering. Informed by research in Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994, 2000), we conducted an online survey to assess the motivational variables that guide the career thinking and advancement of students preparing to enter the field of engineering. Instrumentation included Mapping Vocational Challenges (Lapan & Turner, 2000, 2009, 2014), Perceptions of Barriers (McWhirter, 1997), the Structured Career Development Inventory (Lapan & Turner, 2006; Turner et al., 2006), the Career-Related Parent Support Scale (Turner, Alliman-Brissett, Lapan, Udipi, & Ergun, 2003), and the Assessment of Campus Climate for Underrepresented Groups (Rankin, 2001), which were used to measure interests, goals, personal strengths and internal and external barriers and supports. Participants (N=23) consisted of graduate (≈25%) and undergraduate (≈75%) Native American engineering students. Their survey responses indicated that students were highly interested in, and had strong self-efficacy for, outcome expectations for, and persistence for pursuing their engineering careers. Their most challenging barriers were financial (e.g., having expenses that are greater than income, and having to work while going to school just to make ends meet) and academic barriers (e.g., not sufficiently prepared academically to study engineering). Perceptions of not fitting in and a lack of career information were also identified as moderately challenging barriers. Students endorsed a number of personal strengths, with the strongest being confidence in their own communication and collaboration skills, as well as commitment to their academic and career preparation. The most notable external support to their engineering career development was their parents’ encouragement to make good grades and to go to a school where they could prepare for a STEM career. Students overall found that their engineering program climates (i.e., interactions with students, faculty, staff, and program expectations of how individuals treat each other) were cooperative, friendly, equitable, and respectful. Study results are interpreted in light of SCCT and recommendations for future research and practice in engineering education are provided.
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Correlates of Native American engineering students’ career interests and efficacy: A test of SCCT
There is an urgent need for young people to prepare for and pursue engineering careers. Engineering occupations comprise 20% of the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) jobs in the U.S. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017). The average wage for STEM occupations is nearly double that of non-STEM occupations, with engineers commanding some of the highest salaries in STEM (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017). Moreover, engineering occupations are expected to be some of the fastest growing occupations in the U.S. over the next 10 years (Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2018); yet, there are current and projected shortages of workers in the engineering workforce so that many engineering jobs will go unfilled (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015) Native Americans are highly underrepresented in engineering (NSF, 2017). They comprise approximately 2% of the U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2013), but only 0.3% of engineers (Sandia National Laboratories, 2016). Thus, they are not positioned to attain a high-demand, high-growth, highly rewarding engineering job, nor to provide engineering expertise to meet the needs of their own communities or society at large. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that encourage or discourage Native American college students’ entry into engineering. Using Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994; 2000), we examined the correlates of these students’ interests and efficacy in engineering to accomplish this goal. Participants were N = 30 Native American engineering college students from the Midwest; 65% men, 30% women, and 4% other. The mean age was 25.87 (SD = 6.98). Data were collected over the period of one year on college campuses and at professional development conferences via an online survey hosted on Qualtrics. Three scales were used in the study: Mapping Vocational Challenges – Engineering (Lapan & Turner, 2000, 2016), the Perceptions of Barriers Scale (POB; McWhirter, 1998), and the Structured Career Development Inventory (Lapan & Turner, 2004). An a priori Power Analysis (f2 = .50; α = .05, 1 – β = .90) indicated our sample size was adequate. For all scales, full-scale Cronbach’s α reliabilities ranged from .82 to .86. Results of correlation analyses indicated that engineering efficacy was negatively related to lack of academic preparation (r = -.50, p = .016), and perceived lack of ability (r = -.53, p = .009), and positively related to academic achievement (r = .43, p = .043), career exploration (r = .47, p = .022), and approaching engineering studies proactively (r = .53, p = .009). Engineering interests were negatively related to perceived lack of ability (r = -.55, p = .007), and positively to proactivity (r = .42, p = .044), and academic achievement (r = .45, p = .033). Engineering interests were also related to support from parents, teachers, and friends to study engineering and pursue an engineering career. There was no significant relationship between engineering interests and engineering efficacy among these students. The relevance of these results will be discussed in light of SCCT, and recommendations for practice will be included.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1743329
- PAR ID:
- 10110962
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- American Psychological Association 127th Annual Convention
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Recent reports indicate that there are less than 1900 (0.6%) Native American undergraduate and graduate engineering students nationwide (Yoder, 2016). Although Native Americans are underrepresented in the field of engineering, there is very little research that explores contributing factors. The purpose of our exploratory research is to identify those barriers, supports, and personal strengths that Native American engineering students identify as being influential in developing their career interests and aspirations in engineering. Informed by research in Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), we developed an on-line survey to assess the motivational variables that guide the career thinking and advancement of students preparing to enter the field of engineering. Instrumentation included Mapping Vocational Challenges (Lapan & Turner, 2000, 2009, 2014), Perceptions of Barriers (McWhirter, 1997), the Structured Career Development Inventory (Lapan & Turner, 2006), and the Career-Related Parent Support Scale (Turner et al., 2003), which were used to measure interests, goals, personal strengths and external supports. Participants (N=23) consisted of graduate (≈25%) and undergraduate (≈75%) Native American engineering students. Their responses indicated that their most challenging barriers were financial (e.g., having expenses that are greater than income, and having to work while going to school just to make ends meet), and academic barriers (e.g., not sufficiently prepared academically to study engineering). A lack of career information, and perceptions of not fitting in were also identified as moderately challenging barriers. Students endorsed a number of personal strengths, with the strongest being confidence in their own communication and collaboration skills, and commitment to their academic and career preparation. The most notable external support to their engineering career development was their parents’ encouragement to make good grades and to go to a school where they could prepare for a STEM career. Study results will be interpreted in light of theory, and recommendations for future research and practice will be provided.more » « less
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