T1-C: Identification of Factors Affecting the Retention of Underrepresented Minorities in Engineering
Location
Bill France C
Start Date
5-3-2018 10:00 AM
Description
In 2050, there will be no clear racial majority in the United States. Recently, the rate of births to underrepresented minorities has exceeded the rate of births for whites. In engineering, women are considered an underrepresented minority and include African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders, and disabled individuals1 . Engineering departments in academia must adapt to the learning needs of these underrepresented minorities which will aid students’ success in the classroom. Engineering faculty have been researching the implementation of active learning pedagogy for nearly 40 years. Engineering faculty need to utilize teaching styles congruent with the learning styles of engineering students. Other integration activities such as peer mentoring, peer advising, and participation in professional associations reflective of one's identity have shown gains in retaining underrepresented minority students. The preliminary research presented in this paper will be based on a qualitative case study, grounded theory design. The study explores what pedagogical and integration strategies universities are utilizing to graduate a proportionally high number of underrepresented minorities. The participating universities annually award a high number of degrees to underrepresented minorities relative to other universities with engineering programs. Administrators and faculty were interviewed to determine what activities were important to the retaining of underrepresented minorities. Preliminary implications for practice and future research suggestions will be shared in the paper.
T1-C: Identification of Factors Affecting the Retention of Underrepresented Minorities in Engineering
Bill France C
In 2050, there will be no clear racial majority in the United States. Recently, the rate of births to underrepresented minorities has exceeded the rate of births for whites. In engineering, women are considered an underrepresented minority and include African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders, and disabled individuals1 . Engineering departments in academia must adapt to the learning needs of these underrepresented minorities which will aid students’ success in the classroom. Engineering faculty have been researching the implementation of active learning pedagogy for nearly 40 years. Engineering faculty need to utilize teaching styles congruent with the learning styles of engineering students. Other integration activities such as peer mentoring, peer advising, and participation in professional associations reflective of one's identity have shown gains in retaining underrepresented minority students. The preliminary research presented in this paper will be based on a qualitative case study, grounded theory design. The study explores what pedagogical and integration strategies universities are utilizing to graduate a proportionally high number of underrepresented minorities. The participating universities annually award a high number of degrees to underrepresented minorities relative to other universities with engineering programs. Administrators and faculty were interviewed to determine what activities were important to the retaining of underrepresented minorities. Preliminary implications for practice and future research suggestions will be shared in the paper.