2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This empirical research brief is evaluating two structural equation models to examine the relationship between engineering identity, classroom belonging, and students’ certainty about persisting toward degree completion (i.e., persistence beliefs). Existing literature has examined the relationship between engineering identity and sense of belonging on students' certainty of graduating with an engineering degree using data collected at one point in time. Yet students’ identity as an engineer is created, recreated, and sustained through participation within the role and through one’s own reflexivity. Students are in the process of earning engineering degrees. As they undergo this process, some students take on the identity of an engineer, while others have a future aspirational goal of becoming engineers. It is important to consider the effect of time orientation (i.e., presently situated identity or aspirational identity) on how students see themselves as engineers.

Using engineering role identity as a framework, this study sought to understand how students’ operationalization of engineering identity, as a present or aspirational authoring, differentially supports their persistence beliefs and how the classroom environment influences that relationship. The two models differed in terms of the time orientation of the engineering identity item: present and aspirational. The aim was to explore how a student’s engineering identity and classroom belonging throughout a semester influenced persistence beliefs.

The dataset used for this study was collected at one Hispanic-serving institution (n=189). Participants in this study were upper-level, predominantly Latinx (79%), first-generation college students (79%), and were all taking one of three courses during the data collection process: Statics, Strength of Materials, and Embedded Systems. Data were collected at two time points, at the beginning (T1) and end of the semester (T2).

The findings reveal the critical role classroom belongingness plays at the end of the semester in supporting Latinx students’ persistence beliefs in both models. There was no direct relationship between the present engineering identity (i.e., I see myself as an engineer now) and students’ persistence beliefs. Rather, the present-oriented identity was mediated by classroom belongingness (i.e., Classroom belonging_T1 → Present engineering identity_T2 → Classroom belonging_T2→ Persistence Beliefs_T2). Having an aspirational engineering identity directly supported students’ persistence beliefs at the end of the semester (i.e., Aspirational engineering identity_T1→Aspirational engineering identity_T2→Persistence Beliefs_T2). Classroom belongingness also mediated the relationship between students’ aspirational identity and persistence (i.e., Aspirational engineering identity_T2→Classroom belongingness_T2→Persistence Beliefs_T2). This work expands the current conceptualization of engineering identity to highlight how present-oriented and future-oriented engineering identities are enacted differently by Latinx students to support their persistent beliefs. While it remains important for students to feel like engineers during their undergraduate degree, greater efforts are needed to help students feel capable of succeeding in engineering in ways that align with their aspirations as engineers. Ultimately, by supporting students’ aspirational engineering identity, institutions can reinforce their persistence in the field.

Implications for this research call for 1.) creating welcoming classroom environments to foster Latinx students’ sense of belonging in the classroom, and 2.) curriculum that embraces students' aspirational engineering identity through opportunities aligned with students’ goals as engineers.