Recognizing Differences in Underrepresented Civil Engineering Students’ Career Satisfaction Expectations and College Experiences

Abstract

Student career satisfaction expectations and college experiences are an underutilized map toward attracting and sustaining the interest of underrepresented groups (URGs) in the civil engineering and construction industry. URGs provide indispensable contributions to the development of the built environment; however, URGs in civil engineering have not received sufficient attention to their unique expectations and experiences. Furthermore, diversity and inclusion efforts still are special practices in civil engineering, and are far from a conventional factor of professional respectability. Leveraging a national survey data set of responses from senior level undergraduate engineering students (n ¼ 4,605), this study found measurable differences in career satisfaction expectations and college experiences between URGs and non-URGs in civil engineering. From the survey, 830 senior-level students majoring in civil engineering and construction related fields provided their career satisfaction expectations and undergraduate cocurricular experiences. Welch's t-test and Hedges' g were used to measure the significant differences in career satisfaction expectations between URGs and non-URGs. A frequency distribution was created and paired with chi-squared test for independence and Cramér's V to measure the difference in undergraduate participation in cocurricular activities between URGs and non-URGs. The results of this study showed URGs' career satisfaction expectations and cocurricular activities significantly differed from those of non-URGs. URG students reported more interest in helping others and in volunteering with charity groups in their careers. URG students also reported higher participation in cocurricular activities such as contributing as a member of an organization for women and/or minorities in engineering, acting as a member of an outreach club, and working a work-study or other type of job to pay for college. The findings presented in this paper highlight the need for the civil engineering profession to move beyond monolithic traditions, which can perpetuate exclusion.

Diversity and Inclusion in the Engineering-Construction Industry

“…This finding implies out-of-class activities are important to civil engineering undergraduate students from underrepresented groups. Keku et al (2021) identified the differences in civil engineering and construction undergraduate students' career satisfaction expectations and participation in cocurricular activities (i.e., participation in an organization for women and minorities in engineering and an outreach club) between underrepresented and non-underrepresented groups. Hamlet et al (2021) found that upper-division female students in civil and construction engineering education programs have a more robust engineering identity than their counterparts, and highlighted the importance of building and sustaining a female's strong engineering identity.…”

Re-contextualizing Civil Engineering Education: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…Our preliminary search yielded 107 articles from 47 different sources. (15) appeared in the proceedings of either FIE or the ASEE Annual Conference, and as with the full set of articles, about three quarters were published from 2017 to the present.…”

“…The subset we focus on in this paper comprises 31 articles from 17 different sources (Table 4), from the years 1996 to 2021. Almost half of these articles (15) appeared in the proceedings of either FIE or the ASEE Annual Conference, and as with the full set of articles, about three quarters were published from 2017 to the present.…”

“…Retaining students' interests and supporting their long-term career development is a culturally dependent process. Diverse students have a diverse set of backgrounds, interests, and expectations [15]. In particular, racially-minoritized students face distinct equity challenges [16].…”

La brecha de género en los estudios universitarios del sector STEM en el espacio español de educación

“…Como señala Spertus (1991), la desigualdad en la educación hacia los/as niños/as, transmitiendo valores diferentes de acuerdo con el género, así como la expresión sutil o directa de estereotipos y sesgos sobre estas disciplinas, llevan a áreas STEM a verse afectadas por la segregación, especialmente, los campos de la informática y la ingeniería. El sector educativo STEM padece de baja representación de diversidad de género, especialmente, de mujeres (Jacobs et al, 2017), y de forma notable esta baja representación se produce en el sector de la ingeniería La brecha de género en los estudios universitarios del sector STEM en el espacio español de educación | Sonia Verdugo Castro (Cvencek et al, 2021;Dou et al, 2020;Keku et al, 2021;Moote et al, 2020;Snyder et al, 2018). Debido a la importancia de las influencias sociales y el impacto del contexto y entorno sobre las decisiones de la persona, se considera necesario profundizar en los factores que intervienen en el proceso.…”