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1. Making Space in a Makerspace: Increasing Belonging through Social Engagement

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--46912  

   Davishahl, Jill; Boklage, Audrey (June 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   In recent years, there have been many efforts to increase student sense of belonging in engineering as it has been shown to positively impacting student retention, persistence, and success. One promising venue for building belonging is the academic makerspace. Makerspaces provide a setting for informal learning and student connection inspired by creativity, discovery, and collaboration. Due to the flexible and informal nature of the makerspace environment, it is an ideal place to create social connections between students. Supporting students’ social and emotional development is an essential component to creating culturally competent, well-rounded engineers who exhibit a strong sense of belonging in engineering. Funded through the NSF Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (RIEF) program, this project researched the impact of integrating social engagement activities into an academic makerspace on the development of student sense of belonging. The primary research question explored the extent to which participation in the engagement activities leads to an increased sense of belonging for engineering students. Spanning a two-year period, a series 32 of social engagement events were hosted in the engineering department makerspace. The authors collected data about students perceived social belonging in both the makerspace and the department. Students completed two surveys: a pre-survey administered at the beginning of the social engagement activity and a post-survey administered at the end of each academic year. Findings indicate the social engagement events had a positive impact on the development of student sense of belonging to both the makerspace and the engineering department. These results are encouraging as they suggest that events designed to support the social and emotional development of students can positively impact student sense of belonging to a makerspace environment and, more broadly, to engineering. By creating supportive communities of students built on shared experience and trust, we begin to develop the inclusive communities of learners that is a key component to diversifying pathways to engineering. 

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2. Adopting a multi-systems approach: examining the academic belongingness of first-generation college students with multiple stigmatized identities in STEM

   https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1183907  

   Google, Angela N.; Sekaya, Grace; McMullen, Zachery; Henning, Jeremiah A. (August 2023, Frontiers in Education)

   First-generation college students often experience greater social alienation and marginalization due to a mismatch of their cultural values compared to those of their university and often report lower academic satisfaction and sense of belonging. The effects on sense of belonging and satisfaction are intensified when first-generation college students have identities that intersect with other stigmatized social and cultural identities, like low socioeconomic status, Black or Latinx racial identities or religious identities, specifically for STEM majors. Students’ holistic health and well-being, including their sense of belonging, is highly correlated to their academic achievement, persistence, and overall student success, especially for underrepresented minority groups. However, there has been limited consideration for the nuanced experiences of first-generation college students with multiple stigmatized identities, and for how the academic STEM environment shapes student’s perceptions of inclusivity considering their social identities. To address these concerns, we used the Bioecological Systems theory to contextualize drivers of sense of belonging for students with stigmatized social and cultural identities by allowing space to explicitly consider institutional, departmental, classroom and societal-level phenomena that may operate to erode or fortify belonging for some individuals over others. Findings were organized contextually first, revealing how broader societal and familial values shaped their perceptions of their first-generation identity. Next, we reported how various forms of engagement and interactions with institutional agents impacted their perceptions of support at the institutional level. We then documented behavioral patterns within STEM departments that culminated to reveal how first-generation college students’ sense of belonging was impacted by perceived departmental culture. Last, we revealed interactions within STEM classrooms that signaled inclusivity through humanizing and intentional pedagogical practices. Infused throughout all findings are instances where student experiences were mediated through their multiple identities and were shaped by dual global pandemics of 2020, that being COVID-19 and the racial unrest resurfaced by the murder of George Floyd. Implications for this work have the potential to restructure how institutions provide support for first-generation college students given the salience of their intersecting stigmatized identities in shaping their institutional, disciplinary, and classroom belonging. 

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3. “I feel listened to and heard”: How social support fosters a sense of belonging for low‐income STEM majors

   https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21977  

   Payne, Madison_R; LaDue, Nicole_D; Dugas, Daryl; Winitkun, Duangkamon; Schmidt, Stephanie (August 2024, Journal of Research in Science Teaching)

   Abstract Persistence across undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs is exceptionally low. Recent studies have shown that social support and sense of belonging are particularly important for students who are historically underrepresented in STEM, yet few interventions have directly targeted or investigated these factors. This qualitative study investigates low‐income, high‐achieving undergraduate STEM students' perceptions of their belonging in the context of a 2‐year peer social support group intervention. Interview analysis of 11 participants demonstrates that these STEM students attribute their sense of belonging to feelings or displays of comfort, commonality, community, and concerted effort. The peer group facilitated increases in participants' social support and sense of belonging by allowing participants to build friendships, recognize shared experiences, connect to their campus, build confidence with peers, and feel supported in their non‐academic and academic struggles. Although the program's main objective was to build participants' sense of belonging, the social support provided through the peer group also acted as a mechanism for increasing information‐related social capital. We recommend the implementation of similar non‐academic, supportive social spaces to increase the sense of belonging and overall persistence of low‐income STEM students. 

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4. Fostering an Inclusive Community Among Electrical Engineering Students with Mixed-Reality Technologies at a Hispanic-Serving Institution

   De_Maurya, Preeti; Contreras_Aguirre, Hilda_Cecilia; Platt, Theoderic_Thomas; Esparza, Cristina_Miriam; Ul_Haq_Choyon, Redwan; Hamilton, Bill; Taylor, Marshall_Allen; Garcia_Carrillo, Luis_Rodolfo (February 2025, ASEE PEER)

   Educators have consistently sought resources to enhance social learning experiences that support diverse student populations. Research shows that a sense of belonging significantly impacts students’ learning outcomes, particularly after the shift to hybrid learning models following COVID-19. While the hybrid model has allowed students to continue their education remotely, it has introduced challenges in fostering a sense of belonging within the learning community. We employ a qualitative approach, including interviews and participatory design methods, to examine the experiences of students in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at a Hispanic Serving Institution. We focused on existing learning community issues within the hybrid learning environment. We employ a sense of belonging framework to analyze students’ learning experience, challenges, and needs in their academic pathways. Our findings reveal the need to foster student belonging to strengthen the ECE learning community. We propose employing mixed reality technologies, known for enabling collaboration across different environments, to address students’ lacking sense of belonging. 

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5. An Examination of Perceived Climate, Identity and Belongingness among Undergraduate Women in Engineering

   Ali, S. (January 2021, 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access)

   More women than men in the US graduate college, but women constitute only 16% of the engineering workforce [1]. Women frequently attribute their lack of persistence in engineering to a chilly academic climate [2]. Researchers have suggested that developing a robust engineering identity could moderate a climate effect and support improved retention and graduation of female engineers [2]. However, there is little empirical data on interrelationships among gender, perceived academic climate in engineering programs, engineering identity, and belonging to an engineering community. We drew on social identity theory and extant literature to develop four research questions: 1) Are there any differences between men and women regarding perceived academic climate, sense of belonging, and engineering identity? 2) Does academic climate predict engineering identity in the same way for women and men? 3)Does sense of belonging mediate the relationship between perceived academic climate and engineering identity? 4) Do engineering students who are women demonstrate different relationships among perceived climate, engineering identity, and belongingness from men? We used survey data from a multi-year NSF-funded project (Award # 1726268, #1726088, and #1725880/2033129) that incorporated experimental course-based interventions to build an inclusive curriculum. Surveys were administered at the beginning and end of the semester. We found that at the end of the semester women engineering undergraduates reported lower engineering identity though the initial engineering identity, perceived academic climate, and sense of belonging were the same for both men and women engineering undergraduates. Multiple regression analyses with 601 first-year engineer majors (21% female) indicated perceived climate and gender accounted for 48% of engineering identity variability. The interaction between perceived climate and gender on engineering identity was not statistically significant. Mediation analysis revealed that sense of belonging (b=0.42, 95% CI [0.30, 0.53]) mediated the relationship between perceived climate and engineering identity for both males and females. Sense of belonging was critical in engineering identity. Moderated mediation analysis indicated gender did not moderate the indirect effect of perceived climate on engineering identity through a sense of belonging. 

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