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1. Engineering doctoral student retention and persistence from an organizational climate and intersectional perspective: A targeted review of engineering education literature

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--43326  

   Aldridge, Julie; Else-Quest, Nicole; Roy, Joseph; Yoon, So Yoon (June 2023, ASEE Conferences)

   This literature review was conducted as a preliminary assessment of the available research literature produced by the engineering education community on climate affecting the retention of engineering doctoral students from diverse backgrounds. We seek to understand this specific student group’s retention in context of organizational science--specifically as an organizational climate issue--- and use an intersectional approach to consider the meaning and relevance of students’ belonging, simultaneously, to multiple social categories such as gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, race/ethnicity, and disability status. We review the literature on engineering doctoral students produced by the engineering education community as a first step to building a climate survey instrument. The objective of this literature review is to explore how the concept of ‘climate’ is being used in context of doctoral engineering student retention to degree completion, and we gather a body of evidence of climate factors. To do this, we conducted a targeted literature review and used organizational climate and intersectionality as our approach to interpreting the literature, as we aim to understand how climate affects the retention of engineering doctoral students from diverse backgrounds. In this paper, we first briefly present our understanding of climate as grounded in organizational science and intersectional theory. We then explain our methodology and finally discuss our analysis of the doctoral engineering student literature in engineering. 

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2. A Systematic Literature Review of the Research on Gendered Socialization in Graduate Engineering Education

   Grajdura, Sarah Allison; Beddoes, Kacey (January 2022, American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference)

   Across various contexts, socialization processes and practices have been shown to play key roles in education and career outcomes, satisfaction, and trajectories. Numerous ways in which gender intersects with and structures socialization processes, practices, and experiences have also been identified. Graduate and post-graduate education in particular likely have their own socialization patterns which influence graduate student experience and outcomes. We are interested in the intersection of gender and socialization in graduate education. In this paper, we examine the research landscape of gendered socialization in a graduate engineering education context and identify potential areas for research growth. We also review the different ways in which socialization is theorized and approached in this field. This paper is organized in three parts. The first part broadly maps the landscape of gendered socialization in engineering education. In the second part of the paper, we systematically review the subset of articles on graduate and post-doctoral engineering education, focusing on their findings and approaches. Lastly, we offer recommendations to advance this field. 

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3. Advice to Future Participants From Six Cohorts of an Undergraduate Summer Research Program in Atmospheric Science

   Murry, A.; Yuan, N.; Atkinson, D. (January 2023, Journal of College Science Teaching)

   Many undergraduates use research internships to gain experience for graduate school. Science, technol- ogy, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs involve heavy research and lab work duties, for which students are often unprepared and lack opportunities for practice. Evidence supports Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) pro- grams’ ability to improve retention in STEM, but research has not conclu- sively identified what students need to do to excel in these programs. This analysis used a multimethod approach to identify and quantify student-to-student peer advice from six cohorts of a summer STEM URE. We identified six themes in the advice from exit surveys: proactively man- age time, communicate with your team, motivate yourself, be diligent, have fun, and accommodate changes in lifestyle. Each theme included between three and five subthemes that demonstrated nuance within the larger themes. Navigating the expectations of a URE is a complicated endeavor, but participants who are close to the experience provide rich descriptions to aid adjustment. Developing strategies for time management and team communication are most important, followed by motivation, work ethic, enjoyment, and practical adjustments. 

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4. Work-in-Progress: Seizing failure as an opportunity to learn: Undergraduate engineering students’ conceptions of failure and iteration

   Atwood, Sara A; Scalaro, Kelsey; Holcombe, Rebecca (June 2024, American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference)

   The purpose of this work-in-progress research paper is to explore how mid-program engineering students perceive mastery-based assessment in a multidisciplinary, project-based engineering program. There have been calls in engineering education to support students beyond learning specific competencies but to also include curricular practices that help students see themselves as people who can do engineering. While it is understood that students’ mindsets and feelings of control over their own actions and outcomes are influential in how students see themselves as engineers, less is known about what specific classroom practices have this effect. Specifically, students experience assessment in relation to their learning throughout their engineering programs, but little is known about how their perceptions of these experiences impact their sense of agency or control over how and what they learn. This work explores how mastery-based learning and its associated assessment can be paired with a multidisciplinary project-based learning approach to influence students’ feelings of control and choice in their own engineering education. This paper focuses on qualitative findings from an initial pilot study for a larger, NSF-funded project at a small, Eastern private college. This exploratory pilot study includes the perceptions of four second-year engineering students enrolled in an undergraduate engineering program designed around integrated, multidisciplinary projects. A semi-structured interview with multiple open-ended questions was used to prompt participants to share their experiences with assessment in relation to their own learning, performance, confidence, and choices. Directed content and thematic analysis were used to identify codes and develop themes in relation to how participants described certain features of assessment in their engineering program. Preliminary results will illustrate students’ beliefs, learning, and perceptions of choice in relation to specific features of mastery-based assessment in a multidisciplinary project-based context. The initial themes and patterns identified in this preliminary pilot study will be used to set up a more focused secondary full data collection phase in the larger study and to initiate important conversation around the impacts of specific pedagogical choices on outcomes parallel to learning. By better understanding students’ perceptions of this pedagogical design, future classroom practices can be designed and oriented to support students in feeling agentic in their own engineering education and in becoming their version of an engineer. 

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5. Queering Engineering Through a Student Driven LGBTQIA+ Reading Group (Experience)

   Bakka, Brandon; Chou, Vivian; Marchioni, Jeffrey; Prince, Cassandra; Sugerman, Gabriella; Upreti, Ria; Clayton, Patricia; Borrego, Maura (July 2021, ASEE annual conference exposition)

   In this paper, we describe a queer engineering reading group comprised of undergraduate and graduate students and faculty members. Studies over the last decade have shown that LGBTQIA+ engineering students have continuously felt excluded and devalued in STEM spaces. A key factor in this chilly climate is the social-technical dualism that is often strictly enforced in engineering curriculum. Professors and students alike see discussing politics and social issues as irrelevant to the highly technical curriculum. As a result, queer identities are erased from engineering and students are never able to formally connect engineering with their queer (or other) identity in any meaningful way. In an effort to combat this, we have implemented a LGBTQIA+ reading group that challenges the depoliticizing culture of engineering and allows students to further connect to their engineering and queer identities. This reading group centers weekly discussions of relevant education and sociology literature about queer and/or STEM issues. Each week a different student summarizes the paper’s key concepts then facilitates group discussion where participants voice their personal connections to the themes of the paper. A wide variety of literature has been discussed, with a focus on the intersection of queer identity with other identities marginalized in STEM. Here we present the development and structure of the reading group and lessons learned over the course of the reading group offering in Fall 2020. Furthermore, we will explore the ways this group has helped augment queer engineering spaces and has served as a catalyst for student activism. Importantly, we have included student reflections of their experiences in the group and how the readings connect with their experiences as a queer engineering student. 

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