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1. Factors that influence Native Americans’ interests and aspirations for engineering faculty positions

   Turner, Sherri L.; Jacobs, Sue C.; Mason-Chagil, Gale; Bellcourt, Mark; Smay, Jim; Colston, Nicole; Johnson, Sarah (October 2018, American Indian Science and Engineering Society National Conference)

   Native American faculty are critical to attracting Native American students into the engineering profession. We are investigating factors related to Native Americans’ pursuit of engineering and the engineering faculty. In a sample of student participants, we have found that initiative, resiliency, leadership, and proactivity are key. Interests in this career path are related to efficacy (confidence) for addressing engineering problems, access to information regarding engineering careers, academic success, encouragement from others, and beliefs about the meaningfulness, value, and usefulness of pursuing engineering and the engineering professorate. In a sample of faculty members, enthusiasm for investigating questions of interest in their engineering fields, and solving problems experienced in their tribal communities, sustain their interest. The love of teaching and mentoring students are also very important. Audience members will be invited to participate and to provide insights about how Native Americans are inspired to study engineering and become engineering faculty. 

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2. Supporting factors in Native American engineering students’ pursuit of engineering careers

   Koithan, Emily; Schmitt-Morris, Morgan; Wang, Yuqing; Turner, Sherri L. (March 2019, University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development Research Day)

   For Native American young people, paradoxical cultural pressure (i.e., pressure to do well academically while maintaining tribal identity; Komives et al., 2011), and a lack of academic preparation have been cited as barriers to their academic and career success (Jackson, Smith, & Hill, 2003); however, there is little research regarding the supports that these young people receive. This type of research is especially critical for careers where Native American students are underrepresented, such as in engineering (with Native Americans who comprise almost 2% of the U.S. population comprise only 0.4% of engineers and 0.2% of engineering faculty; NACME, 2014). To tease out differences in how Native American students are supported in their engineering career development compared to students from the dominant cultural group in engineering, we conducted a study with 50 Native American and 50 Caucasian American undergraduate and graduate engineering students. ANOVA’s showed that Caucasian American and Native American students had the same level of interest in pursuing an engineering career; however, Caucasian American students reported greater emotional and instrumental support from parents, school personnel, and peers for studying engineering. Results will be interpreted in light of how educational equity in areas of supporting Native American engineering students can be accomplished. This research was conducted by Emily Koithan, Morgan Schmitt-Morris, Yuqing Wang (Undergraduate Research Scholars [URS]), and Dr. Sherri Turner (Educational Psychology), and colleagues. 

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3. Technology-rich Engineering Experiences in Indigenous and Rural Schools

   https://doi.org/10.46328/ijemst.4129  

   Boz, Tugba; Hammack, Rebekah; Lux, Nicholas; Gannon, Paul (August 2024, International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology)

   Indigenous populations, constituting 6.2% of the global population, face challenges in STEM education due to systemic barriers and limited exposure to science and engineering. Our research, part of a federally funded project, aimed to address these challenges by implementing Community-Based Engineering (CBE) education in an elementary school located on a Native American Reservation in the United States. In this paper, we used CBE as our theoretical framework situating engineering within the context of students' communities and cultures. Our participants included 15 students and two Native American teachers with varying teaching experience. We employed mixed methods and combined quantitative tools such as the Engineering Identity Development Scale and the Engineering Technology subscale of the S-STEM survey, with qualitative data from teacher and student interviews. Our analysis revealed significant changes in students' perceptions of engineering for their communities and their personal engineering identities after they engaged with CBE lessons. We also found that the cultural connections to community were evident in student interviews. Furthermore, teachers appreciated CBE and emphasized that these engineering lessons enrich their rich traditions and practices. This study highlights the effectiveness of CBE and demonstrates how engineering education can be more inclusive and resonant with Indigenous students. 

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4. Collaborative Research: AGEP FC-PAM: Project ELEVATE (Equity-focused Launch to Empower and Value AGEP Faculty to Thrive in Engineering)

   Alaine M. Allen; Darlene Saporu; Elisa Riedo; Shelley L. Anna; Linda DeAngelo: Andrew Douglas; Nathalie Florence Felciai; Neetha Khan; Jelena Kovacevic; Stacey J. Marks; William Harry Sanders; et al (June 2023, Review directory American Society for Engineering Education)

   Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University, and New York University created the Project Equity-focused Launch to Empower and Value AGEP Faculty to Thrive in Engineering (ELEVATE) Alliance (National Science Foundation Awards #2149995, #2149798 #2149899 from the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM in the Directorate for STEM Education) to develop a model to promote the equitable advancement of early career tenure-track engineering faculty from populations of interest to the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program. The goal of this AGEP Faculty Career Pathways Alliance Model (FCPAM) is to develop, implement, self-study, and institutionalize a career pathway model that can be adapted for use at other similar institutions for advancing early career engineering faculty who are: African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders. This NSF AGEP FCPAM will provide a framework for institutional change at private, highly selective research institutions that will enable all faculty to be members of a collaborative community. Improving the experience of these faculty can lead to increased diversity in the engineering faculty and ultimately result in graduating more engineering students from diverse populations and increasing diversity in the engineering workforce. The Alliance interventions will focus on three major areas, 1) equity-focused institutional change designed to make structural changes that support the advancement of AGEP faculty, 2) identity-affirming mentorship that acknowledges and provides professional support to AGEP faculty holistically, recognizing all parts of their identity and 3) inclusive professional development that equips all engineering faculty and institutional leaders with skills to implement inclusive practices and equips AGEP faculty for career advancement. In this paper, we will discuss the process of creating a leadership team to address these focus areas and assess the processes and procedures that currently exist at the three institutions as we begin to institutionalize these change efforts. We provide an overview of the project and efforts to date. We will also present our process for engaging in our initial self-study evaluation and next steps. 

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5. Counter-hegemonic Computing: Toward Computer Science Education for Value Generation and Emancipation

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3449024  

   Eglash, Ron; Bennett, Audrey; Cooke, Laquana; Babbitt, William; Lachney, Michael (December 2021, ACM Transactions on Computing Education)

   Students’ lives, both in and out of school, are full of different forms of value. Wealthy students enjoy value in the form of financial capital; their fit to hegemonic social practices; excellent health care and so on. Low-income students, especially those from African American, Native American, and Latinx communities, often lack access to those resources. But there are other forms of value that low-income students do possess. Most examples of what we will call Counter-Hegemonic Practice (CHP) in the African American community involve some mixture of Indigenous African heritage, contemporary innovation in the Black community, and other influences. Moving between these value forms and the computing classroom is a non-trivial task, especially if we are to avoid merely using the appearance of culture to attract students. Our objective in this paper is to provide a framework for deeper investigations into the computational potentials for CHP; its potential as a link between education and community development; and a more dignified role for its utilization in the CS classroom. We report on a series of collaborative engagements with CHP, largely focused on African American communities. 

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