Navigating Faculty Identity Development through the Tenure and Promotion Process as Black and Hispanic Engineering Faculty

Maria L. Espino; Brian D. Le; Henry Tran; Spencer Platt

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Faculty Development Division (FDD) Technical Session 2
Tagged Division: Faculty Development Division (FDD)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 6
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--43719
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/43719
Download Count: 158

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Paper Authors

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Maria L. Espino University of South Carolina orcid.org/0000-0002-6217-9304

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Maria Luz Espino earned her doctorate degree in the Higher Administration Program in the School of Education at Iowa State University. She obtained her Masters’s degree in Educational Policy and Leadership at Marquette University in her hometown of Milwaukee, WI. She completed her Bachelors degrees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a double major in Community and Nonprofit Leadership and Gender and Women studies. As a scholar and a student advocate, Maria believes that centering, humanizing, empowering, and supporting the communities in which we serve through practical and policy reform.

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Brian D. Le University of California, Los Angeles

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Brian Le (he/him/his) is currently a Ph.D. student in the Higher Education and Organizational Change (HEOC) program at UCLA. Brian holds a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology & health from Iowa State University and a master’s degree in student affairs in higher education from Marquette University. Prior to attending UCLA, Brian worked at Iowa State University for 4 years as a student’s program coordinator for the Science Bound program, a pre-college through college program focused on working with scholars from underrepresented backgrounds to pursue a degree in STEM. He has been a research affiliate on multiple NSF-funded projects surrounding equity in STEM. Brian’s research interests are college access, retention, marginalized students, community colleges, first-generation, STEM education, STEM identity development and engineering education.

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Henry Tran University of South Carolina

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Henry Tran is an Associate Professor at the University of South Carolina’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policies who studies issues related to education human resources (HR). He has published extensively on the topic, and holds two national HR certifications. He is also the co-lead editor of the book How did we get here?: The decay of the teaching profession, co-lead editor of the book Leadership in turbulent times: Cultivating diversity and inclusion in the P-12 Education Workplace, co-editor of the book Leadership in turbulent times: Cultivating diversity and inclusion in the Higher Education Workplace, editor of the Journal of Education Human Resources, and the Director of the Talent Centered Education Leadership Initiative. Prior to his professorship, Tran served as an HR practitioner in both the private sector and in public education. He draws from both experiences in his research and teaching.

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Spencer Platt University of South Carolina

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Abstract

As of 2020, there were 1.5 million faculty members in post-secondary institutions (NCES, 2022). Of these 1.5 million, there is only seven percent Black faculty and six percent Hispanic faculty (NCES, 2022). Black and Hispanic faculty are not only underrepresented at selective public universities but especially so in the areas of science and math (Li & Koedel, 2017). Departments of engineering have often found slim or even zero numbers of underrepresented minority faculty members (Nelson & Brammer, 2010). While some of these problems can be attributed to the challenges of the recruitment of faculty of color, scholars have focused on faculty attrition as a core problem to developing Black and Hispanic Faculty in their departments (Whitakeret al., 2015).

The current study has two objectives. The first is to understand how engineering demographic characteristics are associated with those perceptions for Black and Hispanic engineering faculty (BHEF). Secondly, the study aimed to focus on the barriers that BHEF endure as they are navigating the tenure process. The team conducted a national cross-sectional survey and a longitudinal two interview series to further investigate the survey responses. The survey included 1,161 engineering faculty was analyzed. Of these faculty respondents, open-ended responses of the survey portion of the study, 26 Black faculty members and 51 Hispanic faculty members responded. Looking at the breakdown more in-depth, the respondents were 21 Black men, 5 Black women, 35 Hispanic men, and 16 Hispanic women. On the interview side of the study, we conducted two rounds of interviews, the first including 14 BHEF members and the second including nine to follow-up a year later. These interviews are used to further understand the survey information.

From the open-ended questions of the survey and the two series longitudinal interview data, we highlight three themes (1) The Importance of Professional development and mentorship, (2) Understanding the Tenure and Promotion process in engineering departments, and (3) Developing a faculty identity during COVID-19.

The Importance of Professional development and mentorship. Participants allured to the various mentoring and intentional faculty development settings that are needed and wanted to grow as a junior/early career faculty member. Quotes enhance the areas of 1) wanting a way to connect to senior faculty members in their fields/colleges, 2) Searching and keeping mentors from outside their institutions, and 3) Searching for opportunities to learn/ obtain information for requirements of Tenure and Promotion.

Understanding the Tenure and Promotion process in engineering departments. Participants spoke in detail about the worries they had about the process. Some of the areas of concern are highlighted by a few select quotes.  These quotes highlight the external funding expectations of 1) Engineering faculty, 2) the lack of clear guidelines, and 3) research bias.

Developing a faculty identity during COVID-19. The major underlying conversation that BHEF have mentioned are the obstacles and opportunities that COVID-19 has presented as they navigated the early career.

Finally, we conclude by integrating our results to understand the open-ended survey responses with our interview findings, together.

Citation
Format

Espino, M. L., & Le, B. D., & Tran, H., & Platt, S. (2023, June), Navigating Faculty Identity Development through the Tenure and Promotion Process as Black and Hispanic Engineering Faculty Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43719

TY - CPAPER
AB - As of 2020, there were 1.5 million faculty members in post-secondary institutions (NCES, 2022). Of these 1.5 million, there is only seven percent Black faculty and six percent Hispanic faculty (NCES, 2022). Black and Hispanic faculty are not only underrepresented at selective public universities but especially so in the areas of science and math (Li &amp;amp; Koedel, 2017). Departments of engineering have often found slim or even zero numbers of underrepresented minority faculty members (Nelson &amp;amp; Brammer, 2010). While some of these problems can be attributed to the challenges of the recruitment of faculty of color, scholars have focused on faculty attrition as a core problem to developing Black and Hispanic Faculty in their departments (Whitakeret al., 2015).

The current study has two objectives. The first is to understand how engineering demographic characteristics are associated with those perceptions for Black and Hispanic engineering faculty (BHEF). Secondly, the study aimed to focus on the barriers that BHEF endure as they are navigating the tenure process. The team conducted a national cross-sectional survey and a longitudinal two interview series to further investigate the survey responses. The survey included 1,161 engineering faculty was analyzed. Of these faculty respondents, open-ended responses of the survey portion of the study, 26 Black faculty members and 51 Hispanic faculty members responded. Looking at the breakdown more in-depth, the respondents were 21 Black men, 5 Black women, 35 Hispanic men, and 16 Hispanic women. On the interview side of the study, we conducted two rounds of interviews, the first including 14 BHEF members and the second including nine to follow-up a year later. These interviews are used to further understand the survey information.

From the open-ended questions of the survey and the two series longitudinal interview data, we highlight three themes (1) The Importance of Professional development and mentorship, (2) Understanding the Tenure and Promotion process in engineering departments, and (3) Developing a faculty identity during COVID-19.

The Importance of Professional development and mentorship. Participants allured to the various mentoring and intentional faculty development settings that are needed and wanted to grow as a junior/early career faculty member. Quotes enhance the areas of 1) wanting a way to connect to senior faculty members in their fields/colleges, 2) Searching and keeping mentors from outside their institutions, and 3) Searching for opportunities to learn/ obtain information for requirements of Tenure and Promotion.

Understanding the Tenure and Promotion process in engineering departments. Participants spoke in detail about the worries they had about the process. Some of the areas of concern are highlighted by a few select quotes. These quotes highlight the external funding expectations of 1) Engineering faculty, 2) the lack of clear guidelines, and 3) research bias.

Developing a faculty identity during COVID-19. The major underlying conversation that BHEF have mentioned are the obstacles and opportunities that COVID-19 has presented as they navigated the early career.

Finally, we conclude by integrating our results to understand the open-ended survey responses with our interview findings, together.
AU - Maria L. Espino
AU - Brian D. Le
AU - Henry Tran
AU - Spencer Platt
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Navigating Faculty Identity Development through the Tenure and Promotion Process as Black and Hispanic Engineering Faculty
UR - https://peer.asee.org/43719
DO - 10.18260/1-2--43719
ER -