2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Examining the Experiences of Women and Underrepresented Students Who Leave Engineering Undergraduate Programs

Presented at Mentorship, Retention, Minority Participation, and Examining the Experiences of Women

Given that women and ethnic minority students are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate programs, understanding the factors that impact persistence is critical for universities to develop effective interventions to increase their representation. In our five-year, mixed methods longitudinal study, we followed a cohort of 2,186 engineering majors from the first year to determine how social capital and cultural models of engineering success (CMES) influence their persistence. Students were surveyed every year and we found that Black students were less likely to persist than other groups of students. If students reported in surveys two to five that they were no longer enrolled in their engineering program, they were asked why they were no longer engineering majors, and to rank those reasons in order of the most important to least important. In response to the second survey, 249 students gave at least one reason for leaving engineering. Our descriptive analysis found that the most frequently selected and highest ranked reason for leaving engineering was, “I was academically prepared, but am no longer interested in pursuing engineering.” Women ranked this reason slightly higher than men did. Black students were overrepresented among students who selected “I entered my engineering program not understanding what it meant to be an engineer” and “I was not academically prepared for the math courses in my engineering program.” They ranked the response, “I had financial obligations” higher than other groups of students. They were underrepresented among students who selected “I did not fit in with other students in my department.” Latinx students were overrepresented among students who selected, “I did not fit in with other students in my department” and were underrepresented among students who selected, “I entered my engineering program not understanding what it meant to be an engineer.” In their second year, we interviewed a subsample of 55 women and underrepresented minority (URM) students and conducted follow-up interviews with 36 of these students in their fourth year. Five of the interviewed students had switched to non-engineering majors, and five had left university. Our analysis of the coded interviews found that many of the reasons students gave for switching to non-engineering majors were consistent with the survey responses. These reasons included realizing that they were not interested in engineering, concern about their grade point average because of their coursework's difficulty, and feeling that they did not fit in. Collectively, the survey and interview findings suggest that undergraduate STEM programs must transform their culture and become more welcoming to women and URM students; this includes restructuring “weed-out” courses, faculty professional development that focuses on using inclusive teaching and pedagogy strategies in the classrooms, and developing interventions that focus on changing how faculty, instructional staff, and advisors view and interact with students in their first year.

Authors

Dr. Chrystal A. S. Smith http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7816-058X National Science Foundation [biography]

Chrystal A. S. Smith, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist with expertise in diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM education. Her research uses social science theoretical frameworks to examine how implicit factors such as culture and social capital influence the persistence of students belonging to groups historically underrepresented in STEM education. Currently, she is a Program Officer in the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM, Directorate for STEM Education, National Science Foundation.
John Skvoretz Jr. University of Florida [biography]

John Skvoretz is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Sociology & Interdisciplinary Social Sciences and, by courtesy, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Florida. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a recipient of the James Coleman Distinguished Career Award from the Mathematical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, his current research projects analyze social network data from various sources.
Dr. Rebecca Campbell-Montalvo http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2671-8056 University of Connecticut [biography]

Dr. Rebecca Campbell-Montalvo is a cultural anthropologist who focuses on understanding how a range of people (including women, historically excluded racial/ethnic groups, and LGBTQIA+ students) are served in undergraduate STEM contexts, with an emphasis on engineering and biology. She is a postdoctoral research associate in the Neag School of Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Connecticut. In addition, Campbell-Montalvo is Co-PI on a $500,000 NSF grant that seeks to improve inclusion in biology education and biology education research through the Inclusive Environments and Metrics in Biology Education and Research network. Prior to her current role, Dr. Campbell-Montalvo was the Program Assistant for the National Institute of Health’s Maximizing Access to Research Careers Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research program in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of South Florida.
Dr. Ellen Puccia Beta Research Associates [biography]

Ellen Puccia, Ph.D., is an applied anthropologist with expertise in mixed methods data collection and analysis. In addition to her work in healthcare access, she also focuses on diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM education. Specifically, she looks at the influence of social capital on the persistence of underrepresented groups in STEM. Currently, she is the owner and Executive Director of Beta Research Associates, Inc.
Dr. Gladis Kersaint University of Connecticut [biography]

Gladis Kersaint, Ph.D., is a Professor of Mathematics Education and Associate Dean at the University of South Florida’s College of Education. She is the principal investigator of several grants including the NSF- funded study, “The Effects of Social Capital and Cultural Models on the Retention and Degree Attainment of Women and Minority Engineering Undergraduates.” Her areas of professional interests include factors that influence STEM education, mathematics teaching, and learning of at-risk students, and use of technology for learning and teaching mathematics. She received her doctorate in mathematics education from Illinois State University and her Masters degree in Education and bachelors degree mathematics from the University of Miami.
Dr. Julie P. Martin The Ohio State University [biography]

Julie P. Martin is the Director of the Engineering Education Transformations Institute at University of Georgia. Julie is a Fellow of ASEE and the editor-in-chief of Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering.
Dr. Hesborn Wao [biography]

Hesborn Wao, Ph.D., conducts research that uses mixed methods approaches to investigate the implicit factors associated with the under representation of women and minorities in STEM education. He strives to improve K-20 STEM learning experiences and degree attainment. He received his Ph.D. in Measurement & Evaluation and M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction both from the University of South Florida, and his B. Ed in Mathematics from the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

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