Critical Conversations: Systemic and Agentic Empowerment of Black Ph.D. Students and their Faculty Advisors in Engineering

The main goal of this project is to understand how Black engineering doctoral students and their faculty advisors (academic partners) develop a sense of agency (the ability to perceive and enact change within one’s environment) and how their agency changes over time to form a professional identity. In this project, academic partners will help refine and co-develop materials, procedures, and policies to mitigate racial inequities in their respective disciplines in engineering.

One of the focal points of this work will be to explore agency and to investigate and uncover coping and advocacy strategies in engineering. Additionally critical communication strategies and policy strategies for instituting change and empowerment within engineering and engineering education will also be addressed. A primary broader impact of this project will be the amplification of Black student voices and agentic actions in their continuing work to achieve equitable representation in engineering and STEM fields.

The project will support efforts by researchers, administrators, and educators to help students of color broaden their participation in the engineering workforce.

This research project will provide early stage and exploratory insights into engineering and STEM education by: (1) contributing to an empirical understanding of structural and cultural supports and systemic barriers in engineering, STEM, and higher education; (2) conducting an evidence-based examination of the ways Black graduate student agency in engineering education contributes to the dismantling of systemic inequities within the enterprise of their fields of engineering; and (c) situating the lessons, values, and habits students learn that are not explicitly taught through the formal curriculum that oftentimes deters systemic changes from occurring at the administrative level. This work is split into four phases distributed throughout 4-years: (1) Reflection; (2) Action and Reflection; (3) Impact; and (4) Action and Application.

These phases are intended to create opportunities for critical conversations to happen between the academic partners and key academic leaders and stakeholders in engineering departments. Process evaluation will address questions regarding project implementation and impact. Along with scholarly manuscripts and presentations, public facing articles and op-eds for mainstream press, professional development documents and curriculum will be disseminated.

This project is funded by the Racial Equity in STEM Education program (EHR Racial Equity). The program supports projects that promote racial equity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce development through research and practice. Awarded projects center the voices, knowledge, and experiences of the individuals, communities, and institutions most impacted by the inequities caused by systemic racism in STEM fields.

This program aligns with NSF’s core value of supporting outstanding researchers and innovative thinkers from across the Nation's diversity of demographic groups, regions, and types of organizations.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.