Cultivating Equitable Engineering: Cultural Models of Engineering Success and Undergraduate Degree Program Persistence Across Groups

• In Event: Gender and STEM Education

Abstract

The objective of this study is to ascertain the impact of students’ Cultural Models of Engineering Success (CMES) on their persistence in their undergraduate engineering degree programs. CMES refers to how students understand and conceptualize engineering education, including the people involved. We analyze data from an initial survey of 2,186 first year students at 11 diverse universities and four follow-up surveys from members of this initial cohort. Significant results include that women had stronger entry CMES beliefs, Black students who have higher levels of entry CMES have reduced chances of failing to persist, and pipeline level CMES beliefs and financial struggle significantly predict engineering persistence in general. These findings support structural interventions to cultivate equitable engineering outcomes.

Authors

• Rebecca A. Campbell-Montalvo, University of Connecticut

• John Skvoretz, University of South Florida - Tampa

• Gladis Kersaint, University of Connecticut

• Chrystal A. S. Smith, University of Connecticut

• Ellen Puccia, Beta Research Associates, Inc.

• Julie P. Martin, University of Georgia

• Hesborn Wao, University of South Florida

• George MacDonald, The MacDonald Research Institute

• Reginald S. Lee, University of South Florida