While several studies have enlightened our understanding of the experiences of underrepresented students in engineering, less work has focused on understanding the different beliefs held by all students about diversity and inclusion in engineering. Because beliefs and attitudes are believed to directly impact behavior, it is imperative to understand students’ beliefs and attitudes about diversity and inclusion in engineering. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the values students’ hold about these topics. We developed close-ended items to measure students’ values on these topics, drawing upon Subjective Task Value (STV) constructs of Expectancy Value Theory (EVT) as well as collaborations with diversity office practitioners. In this paper, we discuss in detail the development of measures along with construct validation using several iterations of exploratory factor analysis, and the lessons we learned from this process.
Through data analysis, we concluded that many items on our instrument were highly correlated and thus the instrument is not suitable for confirmatory factor analysis. Instead, we offer pragmatic suggestions for refinement of the instrument. We recommend a deeper examination of the appropriateness of EVT for the research topic. We also recommend avoiding double-barreled questions, such as questions that include a dimension of diversity (e.g., race, gender) as well as a STV construct. Given the research topic, we discuss the possibility of social desirability response bias and recommend including a social desirability subscale in future iterations of item development. Lastly, we discuss implied assumptions of the item development to date, which may have wrongly supposed engineering students to have the same nuanced understanding of dimensions of diversity in engineering as researchers. With these suggestions, we aim to advance our study’s purpose, which is to develop measures of students’ values about diversity and inclusion in engineering. Through this study and future work, we strive to enlighten research- and practice-based efforts to engage students in the diversification and inclusivity of the engineering field, and prevent future researchers from making the same methodological mistakes.
Ashley Taylor is a doctoral candidate in engineering education at Virginia Polytechnic and State University, where she also serves as a program assistant for the Center for Enhancement of Engineering Diversity and an advisor for international senior design projects in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Ashley received her MS in Mechanical Engineering, MPH in Public Health Education, and BS in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech. Her research interests include access to higher education, broadening participation in engineering, the integration of engineering education and international development, and building capacity in low and middle income countries through inclusive engineering education.
Dr. Walter Lee is an associate professor in the Department of Engineering Education and the director for research at the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity (CEED), both at Virginia Tech.
Ben D. Lutz is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Design at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
He is the leader of the Critical Research in Engineering and Technology Education (CREATE) group at
Cal Poly. His research interests include critical pedagogies; efforts for diversity, equity, and inclusion in
engineering, engineering design theory and practice; conceptual change and understanding; and schoolto-
work transitions for new engineers. His current work explores a range of engineering education design
contexts, including the role of power in brainstorming activities, epistemological and conceptual development
of undergraduate learning assistants, as well as the experiences of recent engineering graduates as
they navigate new organizational cultures.
Dr. Holly Matusovich is the Associate Dean for Graduate and Professional Studies in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech and a Professor in the Department of Engineering Education where she has also served in key leadership positions. Dr. Matusovich is recognized for her research and leadership related to graduate student mentoring and faculty development. She won the Hokie Supervisor Spotlight Award in 2014, received the College of Engineering Graduate Student Mentor Award in 2018, and was inducted into the Virginia Tech Academy of Faculty Leadership in 2020. Dr. Matusovich has been a PI/Co-PI on 19 funded research projects including the NSF CAREER Award, with her share of funding being nearly $3 million. She has co-authored 2 book chapters, 34 journal publications, and more than 80 conference papers. She is recognized for her research and teaching, including Dean’s Awards for Outstanding New Faculty, Outstanding Teacher Award, and a Faculty Fellow. Dr. Matusovich has served the Educational Research and Methods (ERM) division of ASEE in many capacities over the past 10+ years including serving as Chair from 2017-2019. Dr. Matusovich is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Advances in Engineering Education and she serves on the ASEE committee for Scholarly Publications.
Cynthia Hampton is a doctoral candidate in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Her research centers on change agency, system structures, and factors that relate to broadening participation of unserrepresented groups in engineering.
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