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Unpacking Engineering Doctoral Students’ Career Goal Setting and Future Time Perspectives

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

ERM: Mentoring for Everyone! And Let's talk about Graduate Students

Page Count

8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--40738

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/40738

Download Count

365

Paper Authors

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Derrick Satterfield University of Nevada, Reno

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Derrick Satterfield is a doctoral candidate in Engineering Education at the University of Nevada, Reno. His research focuses on engineering graduate students' experiences and motivation centered on career planning and preparation.

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Mackenzie Parker University of Nevada, Reno

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Mackenzie is a doctoral student at the University of Nevada, Reno in the Department of Engineering Education. She received a Master of Science degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the same institution in 2018. Her research explores facets of engineering graduate student experiences relating to professional identity, motivation, work-related stress, and mental health.

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Matthew Bahnson North Carolina State University at Raleigh

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Postdoc in Engineering Education at Penn State with Catherine Berdanier.

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Heather Perkins Purdue University at West Lafayette (PPI)

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I entered the Applied Science & Community Psychology program in the fall of 2014, after completing my Bachelor of Science in Psychology at the University of Cincinnati, and graduated in Spring 2021. I'm currently a member of the STRIDE lab at Purdue University as a Postdoctoral Researcher, and will be joining Indiana University's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences as a Visiting Assistant Professor. I’ve participated in various research projects, most of which focus on identity and stereotypes. My current primary research interests are identity processes, STEM education, and the influence of stereotypes.

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Marissa Tsugawa Utah State University - Engineering Education

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Marissa Tsugawa is an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Utah State University. Their research interest is in neurodivergence and how it manifests in engineering education. Past work includes exploring motivation and identity of engineering graduate students, women of color's experiences on engineering teams, and experiences around LGBTQ+ advocacy in STEM. Dr. Tsugawa uses mixed-method approaches with a social constructivist paradigm.

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Cheryl Cass

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Kelsey Scalaro University of Nevada, Reno

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Kelsey is an engineering education Ph.D. student at the University of Nevada, Reno. She has a master's degree in mechanical engineering and 5 years of experience working in the aerospace industry. Her research focuses on identity development and motivation. After graduation, she plans on teaching project-oriented mechanical engineering classes or returning to industry working in training or retention.

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Adam Kirn University of Nevada, Reno

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Abstract

This work-in-progress paper explores how goal-setting theory and future time perspective can be used to investigate how engineering doctoral students set and act upon future career goals. While graduate education serves an opportunity to develop specialized domain expertise, national reports in STEM fields show that students and employers alike believe there is misalignment between the reality and expectations of how prepared students are for their future careers. Other literature similarly discusses an incongruity between traditional concepts of graduate education with the transferrable skills required to thrive as future thought leaders. In an effort to understand engineering graduate students’ perceptions of career preparation, the purpose of this study is to examine how engineering doctoral students talk about their future career goals using an interpretative phenomenology-informed approach to directed content analysis. Findings from this work come from semi-structured interviews with fifteen engineering doctoral students across multiple institutions. This work is framed using two theoretical lenses of achievement motivation: goal setting theory and future time perspective. Goal setting focuses on how goals are developed and maintained while future time perspective examines how developed future goals influence decisions in the present. By using these theories of motivation together, the individual and systemic factors that influence doctoral student goal development, persistence, and professional development are illuminated. Preliminary analysis of the interview data indicates that four goal-setting constructs—goal commitment, strategy, feedback and supervisory support, and organizational support— may adequately describe the systemic influences on students’ experiences, career planning, and career preparation while also indicating where meaningful change can occur. Plans for future work include integrating the goal-setting constructs with an existing future time perspective survey to generate a diagnostic tool that examines the individual and systemic influences on engineering doctoral student career planning and preparation that can guide students, faculty, and administrators in support of professional development of engineering doctoral students aligned with the needs of future careers.

Satterfield, D., & Parker, M., & Bahnson, M., & Perkins, H., & Tsugawa, M., & Cass, C., & Scalaro, K., & Kirn, A. (2022, August), Unpacking Engineering Doctoral Students’ Career Goal Setting and Future Time Perspectives Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40738

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