The overarching goal of this project is to critically evaluate the research-to-practice cycle as it relates to broadening participation of African Americans in engineering and computer science, and develop a national agenda grounded in existing literature and subject-matter experts’ perspectives. To address this purpose, our research team is carrying out a three-phased project that includes systematically reviewing the literature, interviewing subject-matter experts, and conducting a Delphi study, aiming to reach consensus on the key issues and gaps in our understanding. Combined, these efforts will reveal significant questions and areas of opportunity to enhance the relationship between research and practice in this area. We are currently in Year 2 of the project. In addition to providing an overview of the project to date, this paper presents salient findings that emerged from a systematic literature review nineteen articles on barriers to African American’s participation in the engineering and CS workforce (i.e., academia, industry, and government). Although the barriers manifest in unique ways based on the workplace context, they can be organized by the three major paradigms that usually shape broadening participation literature as either pipeline barriers, ecosystem barriers, and/or pathway barriers. Most of the studies in this review revealed barriers experiences by individuals within the work environment (i.e., ecosystem barriers). This paper concludes with possible directions for future research that stem from gaps in the literature, and recommendations for addressing existing challenges.
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Underrepresented and Overlooked: Insights from a Systematic Literature Review about Black Graduate Students in Engineering and Computer Science
Engineers and computer scientists with advanced degrees play a critical role in addressing complex societal challenges while serving as role models for undergraduate students pursuing degrees in these areas. However, the results of a literature map, conducted as a part of a larger study, suggest that we tend to focus on undergraduate education when discussing how to diversify the talent pool. This paper presents the findings from a systematic literature review on the barriers to graduate-level participation in engineering as experienced by African Americans, one of the most underrepresented groups. Twenty-two articles resulted from the search, 11 passing the quality check. The analysis focused on synthesizing themes surrounding how researchers study the problem, barriers to participation, and recommendations for addressing them. Results highlight that investigators tend to focus on three topic areas: (1) Student Identity, (2) Recruitment and Persistence, and (3) Students’ Perceptions of Graduate School. This synthesis presents the current state of the literature on broadening participation of African American engineering graduate students and highlights opportunities for future inquiries.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1647327
- PAR ID:
- 10221067
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IJEE International Journal of Engineering Education
- Volume:
- 37
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2540-9808
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 497-511
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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