2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

A Quantitative Pilot Study of Engineering Graduate Student Identity

Presented at Graduate Education

The aim of this research paper is to develop a multi-item survey instrument to assess and understand engineering graduate students’ identity. Individuals can develop multiple identities in the academic domain, and we anticipate that graduate students develop both an engineering identity and a research identity in their engineering graduate programs. Engineering identity development has mainly been investigated with undergraduate engineering students. The literature on graduate students’ engineering identity development is relatively sparse, and the phenomenon has been investigated mostly using qualitative studies. Furthermore, research identity development has been studied with non-engineering doctoral students, but very few researchers have investigated engineering graduate students’ research identity, even though engineering graduate students engage in research and develop research proficiency during their graduate studies. In this quantitative study, we incorporate findings from previous qualitative studies of engineering identity and researcher identity to 1) assess engineering identity and investigate its relationships with key factors affecting engineering identity development and 2) investigate researcher identity development among other graduate programs to investigate relationships between engineering graduate students’ research identity and key factors affecting its development.

We developed multi-item scales to measure engineering identity and research identity. Several items were borrowed and modified from undergraduate engineering identity studies and research identity studies in different disciplines. In addition, our survey included items that we generated to measure key factors that prior research suggests may affect these identities, namely engineering and research competencies, interest, and recognition. The survey was completed online by 115 mechanical engineering graduate students from a large public research university. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that the items intended to measure engineering and research identities loaded onto their respective factors, and that the items created to measure engineering and research competencies, interest, and recognition loaded onto six factors: Engineering Competence, Engineering Interest, Research Competence, Research Interest, Math/Science Competence, and Interpersonal Skill Competence. Pearson correlation analysis indicated that engineering identity and research identity were significantly correlated with all independent variables except for Interpersonal Skill Competence. In addition, students’ intention to complete their program is significantly correlated with Engineering Identity, Engineering Interest, Research Interest, and Math/Science Competence.

Authors

Mr. Nathan Hyungsok Choe http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5662-0853 The University of Texas, Austin [biography]

Nathan (Hyungsok) Choe is a doctoral student in STEM education at UT Austin. His research focuses on the development of engineering identity in graduate school and underrepresented group. Nathan holds a master's and bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Illinois Tech. He also worked as an engineer at LG electronics mobile communication company.
Dr. Maura Borrego http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7131-4611 University of Texas, Austin [biography]

Maura Borrego is the E.P. Schoch Professor in Engineering, Director of the Center for Engineering Education and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and STEM Education at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Borrego is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education and currently serves as Senior Associate Editor for Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. She was previously a rotating program officer at the National Science Foundation, a Vice President and member of the Board of the American Society for Engineering Education, an associate dean in the graduate school, Deputy Editor of the Journal of Engineering Education and Associate Editor for International Journal of STEM Education. Her research awards include U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and two outstanding publication awards from the American Educational Research Association for her journal articles.
Dr. Luis L. Martins University of Texas, Austin [biography]

Luis L. Martins is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Management at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, where he also holds the Herb Kelleher Chair in Entrepreneurship, the Juanita Dreibelbis Fellowship in Business and a Provost’s Teaching Fellowship. He received his Ph.D. in management and organizational behavior from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. His research examines the cognitive underpinnings of various individual, group, and organizational phenomena in work organizations, primarily using cognition and identity theories.
Dr. Anita Patrick University of Texas, Austin [biography]

Anita Patrick received her PhD in STEM Education from The University of Texas at Austin and BS in Bioengineering from Clemson University. Her research interests include biomedical engineering education, identity, equity and student motivation.
Dr. Carolyn Conner Seepersad University of Texas, Austin [biography]

Professor of Mechanical Engineering

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