2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Development of a Climate Survey for Engineering Doctoral Students from an Intersectional Approach: First-Round Validity Evidence

Presented at Graduate Studies Division (GSD) Technical Session 7: Graduate Student Experiences

This paper reports on the development procedure for a multi-factor climate survey for engineering doctoral students. As the U.S. engineering workforce does not reflect diversity, climate could be a lever that higher education leaders can use to target policies, practices, and procedures in doctoral programs to bolster the retention and success of students from historically excluded groups. Engineering doctoral programs are a type of organization, and the continuation of students in these programs through Ph.D. completion can be viewed as an issue of organizational commitment or member retention. From this perspective, organizational climate measurement can guide researchers and leaders in better understanding the climates affecting the experiences of students from underrepresented populations, such as members of women of color and the LGBTQIA+ community.
Therefore, we used an intersectional approach to develop an organizational climate survey including a scale to assess multiple climate factors associated with organizational commitment or member retention, many of which are particularly salient to the experiences of students from marginalized or minoritized identities. This paper describes the procedure for developing the scale using an intersectional approach to probe the climate factors that may affect a doctoral student's commitment. We took several steps to create the scale, including face/content validity analysis, exploratory factor analyses for validity evidence, and internal consistency reliability evidence. The survey also includes demographic items to capture the respondents' complex social identities. During the Summer and Fall 2023, we collected our first pilot study data of 373 doctoral engineering students from 28 institutions. We will identify the scale's latent factor structure for construct validity evidence and evaluate internal consistency reliability evidence. The finalized survey is expected to contribute to developing a more diverse workforce in doctoral engineering.

Authors
  1. Nicole Else-Quest Orcid 16x16http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4177-2395 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [biography]
  2. Dr. Joe Roy American Society for Engineering Education [biography]
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