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Recent data reveal that a higher percentage of Black women (9.7%) are enrolled in college than any other group, topping Asian women (8.7%), White women (7.1%) and White men (6.1%). Despite these gains in college attendance, Black women are often underrepresented in the fields of engineering and computer science. This paper presents the findings from a qualitative study that investigated the identity and experiences of Black women who are pursuing doctoral degrees in engineering and computer science. This research is grounded on the tenet that one cannot effectively serve or impact a community until he/she genuinely understands the issues and challenges facing the people who are its members. This work explores how Black female doctoral students persist in environments where they are grossly underrepresented. Content analysis is used to examine interview data obtained from 13 Black women who are pursing doctoral degrees in engineering and computer science. This paper concludes with some of the key challenges these women face in their programs on a daily basis. The goal of this research is to bring awareness to not only the challenges, but also potential strategies to increase the retention and persistence of Black women in engineering and computer science across all academic levels.
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How the Hidden Curriculum Reveals the Enculturation Experience of Underrepresented Students in Engineering
In engineering education in the United States (as elsewhere), it is widely recognized that the percentage of women and minorities who acquire engineering degrees is significantly lower than their representation in the general population. Many studies have investigated the cause of this lack of representation in engineering and other STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degree programs. It is widely recognized that the percentage of women and minorities who acquire engineering degrees is significantly lower than their representation in the general population. Adolescents' occupational identity development depends in large part on their internalized mental models of what a given type of professional “looks like,” their subjective sense of their own capacity to be successful at certain tasks and with certain types of knowledge, and the degree to which they feel as if they belong to a community of practice. This paper considers how the concept of “hidden curriculum” can be applied to how underrepresented students experience engineering education uniquely. The concept of the “hidden curriculum” is used to describe the set of structured learning experiences or conditions that occur beyond the design intent of the learning journey established by the explicit curriculum. The hidden curriculum is typically unintentional, unplanned, and less “controllable” than the explicit curriculum. Despite the difficulty in assessing hidden learning expectations, hidden curriculum consistently places expectations on students beyond the explicit curriculum. It is critical to understand not just what variables prevent underrepresented students from persisting, but also what factors encourage their persistence, as such persistence is critical to ensuring a more diverse engineering workforce. This work focuses on how minoritized groups specifically develop professional identity through the hidden curriculum. We consider their perception of belonging in engineering, their experiences of exclusion in various forms, and the mechanisms by which exclusion transpires. By better understanding the cultural dimensions of exclusion, we hope to advance efforts toward inclusion.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2124984
- PAR ID:
- 10527953
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 979-8-3503-3642-9
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 8
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- College Station, TX, USA
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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In this research paper, we explore the relationship between undergraduate students’ engineering identity development and their experiences before and during a materials science REU summer internship program. Insufficient diversity in engineering—and STEM fields overall—may impede scientific advancement and stifle innovation [1]. Yet, people of color and women remain highly underrepresented in engineering. According to the National Center for Education Statistics [2], there have been slight increases between 1998 and 2018 in the percentage of engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded to women (from 18.6% to 22.2%) and to Latino citizens and permanent residents (from 6.8% to 10.9%). Meanwhile, the percentage of engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded to Black U.S. citizens and permanent residents decreased from 5% in 1998 to 3.9% in 2018. This entrenched underrepresentation suggests a persistent and systemic problem remains in engineering, as demonstrated in other recent studies [3], [4]. Accordingly, our research examines the experiences of students participating in a broadening participation intervention while attending to their prior experiences in engineering and how their postsecondary experiences in and beyond the intervention shape their engineering identity development.more » « less
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Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education initiatives in higher education increasingly call for career mentorship opportunities for underrepresented minorities (URM). Researchers (Johnson & Sheppard, 2004; Nelson & Brammer, 2010) note the importance of having faculty to mentor and act as role models for students, often assuming that mentors play a stronger role if they are also from the same cultural background. Native American (NA) faculty members are underrepresented in most fields in colleges and universities, and exceedingly so in engineering. Only 0.2% (N=68) of engineering faculty nationwide identify as Native American (Yoder, 2014). Likewise, NA students are underrepresented in undergraduate (0.6%; N=1853) and graduate (0.1%; N=173) engineering programs. The low percentage in graduate school is of even greater concern as they represent the primary potential pool of new faculty members. Advising and mentorship from those who identify as NA are often considered important components recruiting and retention in STEM fields. For example, Smith and colleagues (2014) found that factors such as communal goal orientation influenced NA engineering students’ motivation and academic performance. However, very few studies account for differences in NA identity or provide a nuanced account of successful NA STEM professional experiences (Page-Reeves et al., 2018). This research paper presents findings from an exploratory study aimed at pinpointing the factors that influence NA entry and persistence in engineering faculty positions.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE58773.2023.10343275
