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Institutional Barriers to Black and Latino Male Collegians’ Success in Engineering and Related STEM Fields

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Conference

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Salt Lake City, Utah

Publication Date

June 23, 2018

Start Date

June 23, 2018

End Date

July 27, 2018

Conference Session

Minorities in Engineering Division Technical Session 4

Tagged Division

Minorities in Engineering

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--30673

Permanent URL

https://strategy.asee.org/30673

Download Count

567

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Paper Authors

biography

Leroy L. Long III Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Univ., Daytona Beach

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Dr. Leroy L. Long III is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Fundamentals at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL. He earned his PhD in STEM Education with a focus on Engineering Education within the Department of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University (OSU). He earned his Master’s in Mechanical Engineering at OSU and his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering at Wright State University. Dr. Long is a native of Dayton, OH. He is a proud graduate of Dayton Public Schools and Wright STEPP - Wright State University's Science, Technology, and Engineering Preparatory Program (STEPP).

Dr. Long’s research interests include: (a) students' technology use, (b) diversity and inclusion, as well as (c) student retention and success, with a particular focus on students in STEM fields. He has conducted and published research with the Movement Lab and Center for Higher Education Enterprise (CHEE) at OSU. Dr. Long has assisted with research, funded by NSF, to study factors that broaden minority student participation and success in STEM fields, (award ID: 1132141).

Dr. Long has taught undergraduates in the First-Year Engineering Program and Department of Mechanical Engineering at OSU and served as a facilitator for both the University Center for the Advancement of Teaching (UCAT) and Young Scholars Program (YSP) at OSU. Furthermore, he has worked in industry at Toyota through participation in INROADS and he has a high record of service with organizations such as the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) and National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). To contact Dr. Long, email: Leroy.Long@erau.edu.

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biography

Trevion S. Henderson University of Michigan

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Trevion Henderson is a doctoral student in the Center for Higher and Postsecondary Education (CSHPE) at the University of Michigan. He recently earned his master's degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs at The Ohio State University while serving as a graduate research associate with the Center for Higher Education Enterprise. Trevion also hold's a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from The Ohio State University, where he served as a research assistant in the College of Education and Human Ecology Center for Inclusion, Diversity, and Academic Success.

Trevion's research interests center on three foci in Engineering Education: pedagogical strategies, practices and policies that broaden minority participation, and curricular design for meeting workforce and industry needs.

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biography

Michael Steven Williams University of Missouri Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-3578-279X

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Dr. Michael Steven Williams’ research broadly focuses on equity and diversity, the social psychological development of students, and institutional diversity in American postsecondary education. Specifically, he centers his inquiry on two aspects of higher education: (a) the student, particularly graduate (e.g., masters, doctoral, professional) student socialization and mentoring and (b) the institution, with a focus on specialized institutions such as historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

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Abstract

Diverse people and perspectives are needed to spur innovation and tackle societal problems. A wealth of untapped intellectual and economic potential exists among historically underrepresented racial/ethnic groups – including Blacks, Latinos and Native Americans – who have not had equitable access to engineering and related STEM fields. For Blacks and Latinos who are accepted into engineering and related STEM fields, they face a number of barriers to their success which lead to low retention and graduation rates. In historically male-dominated fields such as engineering and related STEM disciplines, Black and Latino men have remained underrepresented at the student and faculty ranks. To uncover and tackle the “institutional barriers” that men of color face, this study led to 50 interviews with Black and Latino collegians to better understand the mechanism that prevent them from maximizing their potential for success in engineering and related STEM fields. Interviews showed that students must overcome obstacles such as: (a) inadequate academic advising, (b) poor quality teaching, (c) limited course offerings, and (d) insufficient financial aid. This paper includes recommendations that are helpful to faculty, staff and administrators who are interested in increasing the number of Black and Latino male graduates in engineering and related STEM fields.

Long, L. L., & Henderson, T. S., & Williams, M. S. (2018, June), Institutional Barriers to Black and Latino Male Collegians’ Success in Engineering and Related STEM Fields Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30673

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2018 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015