A Review of the Literature on Students’ Experiences in Historically Black Colleges and Universities Dual-Degree Engineering Programs

Makayla Headley; Trina L. Fletcher; Lisa Benson

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Advancing Diversity in Engineering Education: Insights and Perspectives from Underrepresented Communities
Tagged Division: Minorities in Engineering Division(MIND)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/46485

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Paper Authors

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Makayla Headley Clemson University orcid.org/0009-0003-2941-7854

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I am a doctoral student in Engineering and Science Education. My research interest include engineering curriculum and accreditation.

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Trina L. Fletcher Florida International University orcid.org/0000-0002-1765-5957

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Dr. Trina Fletcher is an Assistant Professor of Engineering and Computing Education at Florida International University and the founder of m3i Journey, a start-up focused on research-based, personalized, holistic, innovative, relevant, and engaging (PHIRE) financial literacy education. She serves as the Director of the READi Lab (readilab.com) where her research portfolio consists of equity, access, and inclusion within education for historically excluded individuals, with a particular focus on women in engineering and computing and STEM education at HBCUs. Additionally, Dr. Fletcher is researching economic equity, and the impact of finances on students' success and academic persistence. She is a 2022 recipient of the NSF Early CAREER award and has received several awards at the institutional and national levels. Prior to academia, Dr. Fletcher served as the Director of Pre-college for the National Society of Black Engineers and worked for two Fortune 500 companies. You can follow Dr. Fletcher on Twitter @trinalfletcher and LinkedIn.

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Lisa Benson Clemson University orcid.org/0000-0001-5517-2289

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Lisa Benson is a Professor of Engineering and Science Education at Clemson University, and the past editor of the Journal of Engineering Education. Her research focuses on the interactions between student motivation and their learning experiences. Her projects include studies of student perceptions, beliefs and attitudes towards becoming engineers and scientists, and their development of problem-solving skills, self-regulated learning practices, and epistemic beliefs. Other projects in the Benson group involve students’ navigational capital, and researchers’ schema development through the peer review process. Dr. Benson is an American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Fellow, and a member of the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), American Educational Research Association (AERA) and Tau Beta Pi. She earned a B.S. in Bioengineering (1978) from the University of Vermont, and M.S. (1986) and Ph.D. (2002) in Bioengineering from Clemson University.

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Abstract

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have faced challenges in developing and maintaining engineering programs due to the lack of equitable resources including funds and technology. Partnerships between HBCUs and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) have emerged as a way to increase the number of Black students in engineering through Dual Degree Engineering Programs (DDEP), often classified as 3-2 programs. Students in these programs attend an HBCU to complete all pre-engineering courses (typically three years), and spend their final undergraduate years (typically two) at a PWI. At the end of the program, students would have earned two bachelor’s degrees, one from the HBCU in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) field and the other from the PWI in an engineering discipline. While there are many advantages to institutional collaborations, HBCU students must learn to adapt to an entirely new system and culture at the PWI.

This scoping literature review examines research on Black students as they matriculate into a PWI from an HBCU while pursuing an engineering degree. The primary objective of this literature review is to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of Black students in DDEPs bridging HBCUs and PWIs. The review specifically sought to address students’ motivations for enrolling in DDEPs, the benefits and challenges involved with making the transition from an HBCU to a PWI, the factors contributing to their decision to pursue such a program, and their expectations regarding these experiences at the two distinct types of institutions. A total of 19 articles were identified and reviewed. Three main categories surfaced from the literature review, with two subcategories within the first theme: 1) references to HBCU DDEPs without the inclusion of student experiences; 1a) goal of increasing the number of Black students in STEM; 1b) engineering degree pathways; 2) HBCU student support and resources; and 3) the experiences of HBCU students in DDEPs. Synthesizing the literature revealed a crucial need for additional research on HBCUs in general. The study’s results emphasize the necessity for exploring the lived experiences of students in HBCU DDEPs. Further exploration could focus on the support and resources provided by institutions to students during their transfer to PWIs. This exploration of DDEPs promises to offer valuable insights into how DDEPs between HBCUs and PWIs can effectively and successfully prepare Black engineering students for their future careers. The findings from this literature review identify areas for future research.

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Format

Headley, M., & Fletcher, T. L., & Benson, L. (2024, June), A Review of the Literature on Students’ Experiences in Historically Black Colleges and Universities Dual-Degree Engineering Programs Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/46485

TY - CPAPER
AB - Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have faced challenges in developing and maintaining engineering programs due to the lack of equitable resources including funds and technology. Partnerships between HBCUs and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) have emerged as a way to increase the number of Black students in engineering through Dual Degree Engineering Programs (DDEP), often classified as 3-2 programs. Students in these programs attend an HBCU to complete all pre-engineering courses (typically three years), and spend their final undergraduate years (typically two) at a PWI. At the end of the program, students would have earned two bachelor’s degrees, one from the HBCU in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) field and the other from the PWI in an engineering discipline. While there are many advantages to institutional collaborations, HBCU students must learn to adapt to an entirely new system and culture at the PWI.

This scoping literature review examines research on Black students as they matriculate into a PWI from an HBCU while pursuing an engineering degree. The primary objective of this literature review is to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of Black students in DDEPs bridging HBCUs and PWIs. The review specifically sought to address students’ motivations for enrolling in DDEPs, the benefits and challenges involved with making the transition from an HBCU to a PWI, the factors contributing to their decision to pursue such a program, and their expectations regarding these experiences at the two distinct types of institutions. A total of 19 articles were identified and reviewed. Three main categories surfaced from the literature review, with two subcategories within the first theme: 1) references to HBCU DDEPs without the inclusion of student experiences; 1a) goal of increasing the number of Black students in STEM; 1b) engineering degree pathways; 2) HBCU student support and resources; and 3) the experiences of HBCU students in DDEPs. Synthesizing the literature revealed a crucial need for additional research on HBCUs in general. The study’s results emphasize the necessity for exploring the lived experiences of students in HBCU DDEPs. Further exploration could focus on the support and resources provided by institutions to students during their transfer to PWIs. This exploration of DDEPs promises to offer valuable insights into how DDEPs between HBCUs and PWIs can effectively and successfully prepare Black engineering students for their future careers. The findings from this literature review identify areas for future research.
AU - Makayla Headley
AU - Trina L. Fletcher
AU - Lisa Benson
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - A Review of the Literature on Students’ Experiences in Historically Black Colleges and Universities Dual-Degree Engineering Programs
UR - https://peer.asee.org/46485
ER -