More Like this

1. Classroom Practices that Support Minoritized Engineering Students’ Sense of Belonging

   Rainey, Arielle; Verdín, Dina; Smith, Jessica (January 2021, Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education)

   null (Ed.)

   Establishing and sustaining a sense of belonging is a necessary human motivation with particular implications for student learning, including in engineering. Students who experience a sense of belonging are more likely to display intrinsic motivation and establish a stronger sense of identity and persistence. It is important, however, to distinguish different domains of belonging, such as belonging to one’s university, belonging to a major, and belonging in the classroom setting. Our study examines if and how faculty support efforts contribute to diverse students’ sense of belonging in the classroom setting. Specifically, we sought to answer the following research questions: Which faculty support efforts promote a sense of classroom belongingness? Do faculty support efforts differentially promote a sense of classroom belongingness for students based on their demographic characteristics? Data for this study was collected in the Fall of 2018, across ten institutions, n = 819. We used the Faculty Support items from the STEM Student Perspectives of Support Instrument developed from Lee’s model of co-curricular support to answer our research questions. Demographic categories were created to understand if and how faculty support efforts differentially promote a sense of belonging for minoritized students compared to their counterparts. Multiple regression analysis was conducted to examine the faculty support efforts that fostered a sense of belonging in the classroom. Interaction effects were included to understand how faculty support efforts affected classroom belongingness for the students in the demographic groups we identified. Minoritized women were less likely to feel a sense of belonging in the classroom when compared to majoritized men. Neither groups of women believed that their instructors wanted them to succeed, thus negatively impacting their classroom belongingness. There were, however, faculty support efforts that positively contributed to a sense of belonging in the classroom for minoritized women, including instructors’ availability, knowing that they could ask instructors for help in course-related material, and when instructors fostered an atmosphere of mutual respect. Additionally, minoritized women felt a sense of classroom belonging when they could capitalize on their previous experiences to scaffold their learning. Our findings highlight classroom practices and strategies faculty can use in the classroom to support minoritized women’s sense of belonging. These practices and strategies will be a crucial resource for engineering educators and administrators who seek to improve the field’s retention of minoritized and women students. Whereas efforts have been made to recruit minoritized students into engineering, our study points to a clear and crucial role for faculty to play: they can support minoritized students by fostering a sense of belonging in engineering classrooms. 

   more » « less
2. Caught in a Double Bind: Toward an Understanding of Undergraduate Women Engineers Early Experiences

   https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.0.a960939  

   DeAngelo, Linda; Lewis, Danielle Vegas; Snowadzky, Morgen (May 2025, The Review of Higher Education)

   Women’s experiences in engineering are fraught with issues beyond their underrepresentation. Utilizing the concept of the double bind and intersectionality, this interpretive phenomenological study examined data from interviews with 32 first-year women undergraduate engineering students during their first few weeks of college to understand how women’s early experiences inform the ways they position themselves in engineering. We were concerned with how women’s self-understanding is inherently intertwined with how they make calculated moves based on contradictory messaging about their competence and suitability for engineering both prior to and early on in their college experience. We found that women engineering students of all races and ethnicities begin college already caught in a double bind that forces them to navigate conflicting social expectations, which are intensified and reified during their early college experiences as they face the entrenched gender expectations in engineering. For women of Color, the whiteness of the space uniquely heightened, differentiated, and situated their experiences. We conclude our discussion with implications that center equity in both experiences and outcomes 

   more » « less
3. Racism, sexism, and classism: The uneven terrain of student belonging in introductory biology classrooms

   https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.25-08-0178  

   Donham, Cristine; Madison, Matthew J; Andrews, Tessa C (June 2026, CBE—Life Sciences Education)

   Eddy, Sarah L (Ed.)

   Sense of belonging supports student success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), yet prior research indicates that systemic inequities shape who feels included in college classrooms. Racism, sexism, and classism can shape students’ belonging, which then can impact their outcomes. We studied students’ sense of belonging in 56 large introductory biology courses that used active learning, reaching more than 4900 students. We used a QuantCrit methodological framework and hierarchical linear models to examine how the intersection of racism and sexism, and racism and classism, related to three components of students’ belonging. Racism impacted groups differently, and its impact varied across intersecting identities and components of belonging. Sexism undermined women's comfort sharing ideas in class and seeking instructor help across racial/ethnic groups. Women in some racial/ethnic groups experienced greater connectedness to classmates than men. Classism diminished students’ sense of belonging across most racial/ethnic groups. Disaggregating students into more racial/ethnic groups revealed important differences in the experiences of Native American, Latiné, Black/African, and two groups of Asian students. These findings demonstrate that within the same classroom, students can have profoundly different experiences and challenge us to recognize the influence of intersecting forms of oppression on our students. 

   more » « less
4. Work-in-Progress: Psychological Safety, Belonging, and Expectancy: Early Insights from a Longitudinal Study of First-Year Engineering Students

   Campbell, J; Huerta, M; Liang, Xinya (July 2026, American Society of Engineering Education)

   This empirical work-in-progress paper presents preliminary findings from a longitudinal mixed-methods study examining the relationship between psychological safety, sense of belonging, and expectations of success in engineering among first-year engineering students at a public R1 university located in the United States. There is a critical need to educate and graduate more engineers to meet state and national workforce needs, but retaining undergraduate engineering students continues to be a challenge. One factor that may help retain engineering students is increased psychological safety on their engineering teams. Psychological safety is the shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking without fear of repercussions. Psychological safety can improve teamwork and may be linked with sense of belonging and expectations of success for engineering students, which are two key constructs linked with retention in engineering. While prior research has explored psychological safety on undergraduate engineering teams, its longitudinal impact on first-year students’ outcomes remains underexplored. We draw on Conservation of Resources theory to consider how psychological safety relates to academic outcomes and subsequent persistence in engineering. The underlying principle is that students aim to retain and accumulate resources and avoid the loss of resources, where psychological safety in a learning environment can enhance perceived resources while minimizing perceived threats, thus leading to positive academic outcomes and long-term persistence in an engineering major. We draw on initial data from a longitudinal cohort study of first-year engineering students employing a convergent mixed methods design. Data is being collected through a survey using validated measures for psychological safety, sense of belonging, and expectancy, along with open-ended responses to add depth on student experiences in first-year courses. Students will respond to the survey four times per semester for a total of eight times during their first year in engineering. We expect a total of 750 students to respond to each survey as part of course requirements. We present preliminary findings from quantitative and qualitative responses during student’s first semester of engineering in Fall 2025. Quantitative data will be analyzed using repeated-measures multilevel modeling, which accommodates the nested data structure and allows us to capture individual changes in psychological safety over time, to evaluate the relationships between psychological safety, sense of belonging, and expectancy, and to evaluate whether there are differential effects of team psychological safety on belonging and expectancy. A subset of the qualitative data will be analyzed using thematic analysis to explore potential reasons for changes in psychological safety over time and examine why psychological safety, belonging, and expectations of success may be related. Findings from this study may inform the timing and design of targeted interventions to foster improved team and classroom environments, ultimately supporting broader efforts to improve retention in engineering education. Qualitative responses may also suggest potential directions for the development and evaluation of interventions or educational practices. Positive practices can then be adapted and evaluated in different settings while negative practices can be modified or removed in future offerings in the first-year program. 

   more » « less
5. The power of interest: minoritized women’s interest in engineering fosters persistence beliefs beyond belongingness and engineering identity

   https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-021-00292-1  

   Verdín, Dina (December 2021, International Journal of STEM Education)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Backgrounds This study examined how developing an engineering identity through the interplay between interest, recognition, and performance/competence beliefs and establishing a sense of belonging supported women’s persistence beliefs in engineering. Persistence belief in this study is captured through women’s certainty of graduating with an engineering degree. Students’ levels of motivation, affective states, and actions are based on what students believe to be true. Data were gathered from a survey administered to engineering students at nine institutions across the USA. Only female engineering students were used in the analysis. Students were further grouped into categories based on the representation of their race/ethnicity in engineering; 121 women were identified as minoritized in engineering, and 252 were identified as part of the majority group in engineering. Structural equation modeling was used to understand how the development of an engineering identity and modes of belonging (i.e., belonging in the major and in the classroom environment) supported women’s certainty to graduate with an engineering degree. All latent constructs were examined for measurement invariance; partial measurement invariance was achieved. Equality constraints on the structural paths of the model were not enforced to allow for differences across groups. Results Seeing oneself as an engineer (i.e., internal recognition) did not support minoritized women’s certainty to persist toward degree completion, whereas this internal recognition supported majority women’s persistence. Belonging in the major and belonging in the classroom environment did not support minoritized women’s certainty to persist. Establishing a sense of belonging in the classroom environment supported majority women’s certainty to persist. Minoritized women’s persistence toward degree completion was supported by their interest in engineering and their confidence in performing well in engineering coursework. However, interest in engineering was two times more influential toward minoritized women’s persistence than their performance competence beliefs. Conclusion These findings provide educators with a nuanced understanding of how identity development and modes of belonging differentially affect women’s persistence beliefs. These findings suggest that educators need to understand the powerful influence minoritized women’s interest in engineering has on their persistence beliefs and create mechanisms to continuously reinforce interest. 

   more » « less