2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Context
In 2020, a large research-based southeastern university’s Electrical Engineering (EE) department was awarded the Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED) grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The on-going grant supports organizational and cultural revolutions to improve the current Research-Teaching-Service model to a Research-Students-Practice model. Research efforts within the grant include sections on Participatory Action Research (PAR) in which students within the department could launch their own research projects into the effectiveness of the changes within the department.

Purpose
In this paper, we showcase one of the undergraduate student’s research efforts under PAR investigating the role of RED programmatic activities and its effect on student’s feelings of imposter syndrome and perceived self-efficacy. Imposter syndrome is a psychological term that refers to a pattern of behavior wherein people doubt their abilities and have a persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud (Samyukta, 2019). Imposter syndrome is known to occur more frequently in scientific-based communities due to the difficulty of their subject matter, along with being more prevalent in marginalized communities (Woolston, 2021).

Approach
Six students within the Electrical Engineering department, who had completed at least one of the five new RED classes, were interviewed in a semi-structured interview format, in order to complete a qualitative analysis on the effects of these classes on students’ feelings of imposter syndrome and perceived self-efficacy. Thematic analysis was employed to analyze the qualitative data and identified broader themes demonstrating students perception and changes in imposter syndrome and self-efficacy.

Anticipated Outcomes
Preliminary interviews confirmed that imposter syndrome is felt within the electrical engineering community under investigation. However, the RED program activities under implementation has played an important role in increasing student’s perceived self-efficacy and thereby combating imposter syndrome. Specifically, students mentioned how the distinct focus on career readiness and project-based learning have supported, rather than traditional theory courses. Additionally, some students mentioned how after advancing through the degree, they have encouraged other students to switch to electrical engineering at the university.

Conclusions
This paper will address the results obtained from the qualitative study mentioned above on the effect of the new RED program activities on student’s feelings of imposter syndrome and perceived self-efficacy. These results will additionally be submitted to the university to help affect positive change in the RED program and set-up of these classes moving forward.

References

Samyukta Mullangi, M. D. (2019, August 6). Impostor Syndrome: Treat the cause not the symptom. JAMA. Retrieved April 23, 2023, from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2740724

Woolston, C. (2021, November 23). The Blight of Burnout and Impostor Syndrome. Nature News. Retrieved April 23, 2023, from https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03042-z