An official website of the United States government
The landscape of graduate science education is changing as efforts to diversify the professoriate have increased because academic faculty jobs at universities have grown scarce and more competitive. With this context as a backdrop, the present research examines the perceptions and career goals of advisors and advisees through surveys of PhD students (Study 1, N = 195) and faculty mentors (Study 2, N = 272) in science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines. Study 1 examined actual preferences and career goals of PhD students among three options: research careers, teaching careers, and non-academic careers in industry, and compared the actual preferences of students with what they perceived as being the normative preferences of faculty. Overall, students had mixed preferences but perceived that their advisors had a strong normative preference for research careers for them. Moreover, students who ranked research positions as most desirable felt the most belonging in their academic departments. Further analyses revealed no differences in career preferences as a function of underrepresented minority (URM) student status or first-generation (FG) status, but URM and FG students felt less belonging in their academic departments. Study 2 examined faculty preferences for different careers for their advisees, both in general and for current students in particular. While faculty advisors preferred students to go into research in general, when focusing on specific students, they saw their preferences as being closely aligned with the career preference of each PhD student. Faculty advisors did not perceive any difference in belonging between their students as a function of their URM status. Discrepancies between student and faculty perceptions may occur, in part, because faculty and students do not engage in sufficient discussions about the wider range of career options beyond academic research. Supporting this possibility, PhD students and faculty advisors reported feeling more comfortable discussing research careers with each other than either non-academic industry positions or teaching positions. Discussion centers on the implications of these findings for interpersonal and institutional efforts to foster diversity in the professoriate and to create open communication about career development.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on July 1, 2025
The Role of Contextual Variables and Structural Diversity on College Students’ Engineering Self-Efficacy
Structural diversity is defined as the numerical representation of diverse racial/ethnic student groups on campus as one way of exposing students to diversity in higher education. The current study implemented the concept of structural diversity on faculty in higher education, given the significant and unique roles in STEM education. We integrated the proportion of URM faculty within the College of Engineering as a moderating variable in the social cognitive career theory (SCCT) model. With a sample of 254 diverse engineering students from six universities, the results indicated that both perceived engineering barriers and perceived engineering supports significantly related to perceived self-efficacy even after controlling for the effects of the other. Perceived engineering supports mediated the effects of engineering barriers on self-efficacy. Moreover, a moderated mediation effect by the proportion of URM faculty was observed, showing that when the proportion of URM faculty reached a certain level, high levels of perceived engineering barriers had no effect on increasing perceived engineering supports. Implications for fostering career development in engineering with a systematic-tailored approach are discussed.
more »
« less
- PAR ID:
- 10521698
- Publisher / Repository:
- MDPI
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Behavioral Sciences
- Volume:
- 14
- Issue:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 2076-328X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 564
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
This research paper explores the potential use of chatbots (simulated interactive virtual conversations) in future faculty mentoring. In this case, a mentee asks career advice of a chatbot that draws responses from a pre-programmed database populated by renowned emeriti engineering faculty. Chatbots are being developed under the National Science Foundation INCLUDES Design and Developments Launch Pilot award (17-4458). Their efficacy for future faculty mentoring is explored through a phenomenological design grounded by the Efficacy of Chatbots for Future Faculty Mentoring conceptual framework utilizing focus groups with underrepresented minority (URM) doctoral engineering students. Chatbots were found to be effective as a supplementary mentoring option as URM doctoral students have ample unmet mentoring needs. Yet, intent to use this type of mentoring was mixed, despite high satisfaction ratings on positive user interface and perceived trustworthiness, because of the lack of personalization in this type of mentoring relationship. The preferred presentation method for this research paper is a traditional lecture, although a demonstration of the chatbot will be provided to afford session participants the opportunity to view and offer feedback on its perceived utility.more » « less
-
Although institutions of higher education have placed a large emphasis on increasing the number of underrepresented minority (URM) students matriculating in higher education, the disparities in STEM retention and graduation rates between URM and non-URM students emphasize the dire need for increased support to help URM students navigate challenges including stereotype threat, impostor phenomenon, and lack of social connectedness that disproportionately affect URM students in majority-dominated fields. Prior research has demonstrated that structured mentoring has the potential to generate substantial improvements in academic, social, and career outcomes for URM STEM students. In particular, network-based mentoring approaches that allow for students to receive both professional and peer mentoring, as well as the opportunity to mentor other students, have demonstrated success in this realm. In this article, we discuss how the current state of academia often fails URM STEM students and faculty, review literature regarding the ways in which structured mentoring approaches can alleviate barriers to success among URM groups in STEM fields, and offer recommendations regarding how academic institutions can successfully implement holistic student and faculty mentoring programs.more » « less
-
In higher education, faculty diversity is critical for a variety of important outcomes, including supporting students in pursuing and persisting in STEM fields by providing in-group role models. However, current engineering faculty do not equitably represent the general population. In order to address this lack of representation in higher education engineering programs, the University of Lowell S-STEM program has the goal to recruit three cohorts of low-income, high-achieving students who wish to pursue a career in higher education. The UML S-STEM program supports engineering scholars for four years, their last two years of undergraduate school and their first two years of graduate school. The goal of the program is to attract and retain diverse engineering S-STEM scholars and prepare them to enter the competitive pool of future faculty candidates. We present our successes and challenges in recruiting the first two cohorts of low-income, high-achieving students. In the first year, we focused on email blasts, a social media campaign, partnering with student groups, and general outreach via career panels. 55 eligible students were identified by the financial aid office, 12 applications received, and 4 students fit the timeline and eligibility requirements (all were accepted). Three of the four are first generation students, and three of the four identify as students from underrepresented minority backgrounds in engineering. Recruitment lessons learned were that because the scholarship opportunity is so unique, emails alone from a faculty member the students are not familiar with do not work well. Additionally, sophomores are often not proactively seeking more information and scholarship opportunities for graduate school. As a result of these findings, we increased our outreach opportunities to allow students to discuss and explore the benefits of graduate school to build the interest and self-efficacy of our target population. Further, we asked faculty members that work with the students to reach out to students individually and encourage them to apply. Using this approach, after identifying 79 eligible students, 38 applications were received, 84% from our list of eligible students, and 63% from populations underrepresented in engineering.more » « less
-
Within engineering, there is a need for more diverse faculty representation to support and serve as role models for underrepresented students. To attract, support, and retain diverse candidates, the pipeline and preparation of faculty must be better addressed. To investigate effective supports, the University of Massachusetts Lowell S-STEM program recruits and supports low-income, high-achieving students who wish to pursue a career in higher education. The UML S-STEM program supports scholars for four years, from their third year in undergraduate studies through the completion of either a master's degree or a qualifying exam within a Ph.D. program. To prepare the students in the program for future faculty positions, they are grouped in cohorts and meet monthly. In this report, we present our programming activities to develop self-awareness and social awareness. The activities of the monthly meetings center around building social consciousness through first developing students’ self-awareness in the context of their engineering journeys, and then through a more general investigation of their understanding of the importance and impact of cultural orientations within and beyond engineering. The aim of the programming was to inspire awareness of the different experiences and needs of students in engineering education. Participants were given brief surveys at the end of each activity, and they participated in end-of-year focus groups. The results indicated the approach taken helped students reflect on their own cultural orientation to teaching and learning, as well as that of their peers.more » « less
