Board # 94 : Diversity across Engineering Disciplines: Factors that Influence Student Engineering Major Choice

Joyce B. Main; Amanda L Griffith; Xinrui (rose) Xu; Alexandra Marie Dukes

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Conference: 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Publication Date: June 24, 2017
Start Date: June 24, 2017
End Date: June 28, 2017
Conference Session: NSF Grantees Poster Session
Tagged Topics: Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session
Page Count: 4
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--27959
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/27959
Download Count: 449

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Paper Authors

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Joyce B. Main Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering) orcid.org/0000-0002-3984-533X

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Joyce B. Main is Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She holds a Ph.D. in Learning, Teaching, and Social Policy from Cornell University, and an Ed.M. in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Amanda L Griffith Wake Forest University

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Xinrui (rose) Xu Purdue University

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Xinrui (Rose) Xu is a currently a doctoral student in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. She also serves as a career consultant at Purdue University Center for Career Opportunities. Rose got a bachelor of science in electrical engineering focus on digital media, and a master of science in education in counseling focus on mental health. Her research interests are around students career development including interest development, major choice, career decision making, job search and hiring, career pathway, diversity issues in engineering, as well as students' mental health.

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Alexandra Marie Dukes Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering)

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Alexandra Dukes is a graduate student in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering department with a concentration in Systems at Purdue University. She is interested in broadening the diversity of engineering and the analysis of system architectures within industry. More specifically, her work examines the pathways of students into engineering and the effects of management personalities on a product life cycle respectively.

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Abstract

Although initiatives and programs designed to broaden participation in academic institutions have generated many positive changes, the proportions of women, African American, Hispanic, and Native American students have not seen commensurate increases in engineering fields. Diversifying the undergraduate engineering population has important consequences for our nation’s ability to meet the increasing demands for a larger technological and scientific labor force. While diversifying engineering in the aggregate is both timely and critical, it is equally important to consider the level of diversity within each engineering discipline (e.g., Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, Chemical). When engineering disciplines are disaggregated, it is clear that some disciplines are less diverse than others. Focusing on diversity at the discipline level has important implications for the design of effective department level programs and curricular interventions to promote participation and persistence of a broad range of students. Thus, this research examines the causes and consequences of the demographic variation across engineering disciplines

This research applies a mixed methods approach to focus on a critical decision juncture—selection into an engineering major. Using organizational demography and the social cognitive theory of self regulation as theoretical frameworks, the following research questions are addressed: • Which demographic characteristics are associated with engineering major choice? • Why do students choose engineering and how do students choose between the different engineering disciplines?

Methods include descriptive analysis and logistic regression of over 20,000 individual student-level data from a large, Midwestern research university to identify factors that influence student selection into a particular engineering major. Thematic analysis of 39 engineering student interviews provides rich details regarding the major selection process. Preliminary findings indicate that women are more likely than men to choose Chemical engineering, whereas Hispanic/Latino students are more likely to choose Electrical or Industrial engineering versus other majors. African American students are more likely to choose Chemical or Electrical engineering compared to other majors. Consistent with previous literature, students cite the following reasons for majoring in engineering: (1) parental influence, (2) high school teachers and programs, (3) college curriculum and programs, (4) professional/career-related aspirations, and (5) desires to help society.

Research findings provide context and information for various potential applications to increase discipline-specific diversity, such as developing new strategies/interventions to support success among underrepresented students, identifying overlooked areas in classroom environments, providing critical information for the development of surveys and larger-scale studies for investigating diversity across engineering. University administrators, faculty, and stakeholders could use these findings to help develop strategies to encourage more women and underrepresented students to pursue engineering and to consider more fully the wide range of engineering disciplines available.

Citation
Format

Main, J. B., & Griffith, A. L., & Xu, X. R., & Dukes, A. M. (2017, June), Board # 94 : Diversity across Engineering Disciplines: Factors that Influence Student Engineering Major Choice Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--27959

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Although initiatives and programs designed to broaden participation in academic institutions have generated many positive changes, the proportions of women, African American, Hispanic, and Native American students have not seen commensurate increases in engineering fields. Diversifying the undergraduate engineering population has important consequences for our nation’s ability to meet the increasing demands for a larger technological and scientific labor force. While diversifying engineering in the aggregate is both timely and critical, it is equally important to consider the level of diversity within each engineering discipline (e.g., Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, Chemical). When engineering disciplines are disaggregated, it is clear that some disciplines are less diverse than others. Focusing on diversity at the discipline level has important implications for the design of effective department level programs and curricular interventions to promote participation and persistence of a broad range of students. Thus, this research examines the causes and consequences of the demographic variation across engineering disciplines 

This research applies a mixed methods approach to focus on a critical decision juncture—selection into an engineering major. Using organizational demography and the social cognitive theory of self regulation as theoretical frameworks, the following research questions are addressed:
•	Which demographic characteristics are associated with engineering major choice?
•	Why do students choose engineering and how do students choose between the different engineering disciplines?

Methods include descriptive analysis and logistic regression of over 20,000 individual student-level data from a large, Midwestern research university to identify factors that influence student selection into a particular engineering major. Thematic analysis of 39 engineering student interviews provides rich details regarding the major selection process. Preliminary findings indicate that women are more likely than men to choose Chemical engineering, whereas Hispanic/Latino students are more likely to choose Electrical or Industrial engineering versus other majors. African American students are more likely to choose Chemical or Electrical engineering compared to other majors. Consistent with previous literature, students cite the following reasons for majoring in engineering: (1) parental influence, (2) high school teachers and programs, (3) college curriculum and programs, (4) professional/career-related aspirations, and (5) desires to help society.

Research findings provide context and information for various potential applications to increase discipline-specific diversity, such as developing new strategies/interventions to support success among underrepresented students, identifying overlooked areas in classroom environments, providing critical information for the development of surveys and larger-scale studies for investigating diversity across engineering. University administrators, faculty, and stakeholders could use these findings to help develop strategies to encourage more women and underrepresented students to pursue engineering and to consider more fully the wide range of engineering disciplines available.

AU  - Joyce B. Main
AU  - Amanda L Griffith
AU  - Xinrui (rose) Xu
AU  - Alexandra Marie Dukes
CY  - Columbus, Ohio
DA  - 2017/06/24
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Board # 94 : Diversity across Engineering Disciplines: Factors that Influence Student Engineering Major Choice
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/27959
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--27959
ER  -