Sociocultural Influences on Motivation: How African American Engineering Students Select Pathways Out of the Engineering Workforce

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: The Agency of Historically Marginalized Subjects

Abstract

For decades researchers have been concerned with the under-representation of African-Americans in the Engineering workforce. Primarily they have examined differences in academic preparation and the Black-White achievement gap. Given that African-American students in Colleges of Engineering are more than twice as likely to chose Engineering Technology majors which exclude them from pathways to the engineering workforce, this study employs a decision theory framework to qualitatively describe socio-cultural factors influencing African-American students’ motivations for choosing Engineering majors. Preliminary findings drawn from interviews with 23 African Engineering students (13 Technology majors and 10 Engineering majors) suggest that students’ perceived options are influenced by difference in their reactions to perceived discrimination, their career goal clarity, and their capacity to manage cultural dissonance.

Authors

• Aaron Allen Baker, University of Toledo

• Revathy Kumar, University of Toledo

• Willie Mckether

• Lesley Berhan, University of Toledo