Native Americans: An Exploratory Study Pinpointing the Factors That Influence Their Interests and Aspirations for Engineering Faculty Positions

This project aims to develop a deeper understanding of the factors influencing Native American or Alaskan Native (hereafter referred to as Native American) participation in the engineering professorate. According to a 2014 NACME report, only 0.4% of engineers are Native American, and even fewer engineering faculty are Native American. Engineering faculty are important in attracting and retaining students by providing positive socio-cultural experiences, role modeling, mentorship, and inclusive learning environments that reduce isolation. However, little is known about the factors promoting Native Americans' entry into the engineering professorate or persistence as engineering faculty members. The research will provide systematic evidence that could lead to best practices in providing Native Americans with experiences and support to encourage them to pursue the engineering professorate and consider the academy as their professional home. In an era of decreased enrollment in engineering programs, enhancing diversity is key to long term growth and global competitiveness. Diversity in engineering fields is more than an issue of fairness and equity, but also of quality of the engineering endeavor. Cultivating the talent and promoting full inclusion of Native Americans in the engineering professorate can promote diversity in the workforce to encourage the growth, creativity, and innovation necessary to solving our most pressing tribal, national, and global problems.

There is a critical need to investigate potential factors and the linkages among them to make meaningful progress toward increasing the number of Native American faculty in engineering. However, the lack of prior systematic investigations means that research methods and materials designed to tap underlying constructs are unavailable, and that pilot data on which to base more extended investigations are non-existent. Therefore, the overall objective of this proposal is two-fold: 1) to conduct an exploratory pilot study of hypothesized factors and the linkages among them in several samples of Native American engineering students and faculty, including participants from Oklahoma, Minnesota, and members of the American Indian and Science and Engineering Society (AISES), and 2) to develop methods and materials in preparation for subsequent cross-sectional and longitudinal work. Our central hypothesis is that there are identifiable factors that explain Native Americans' entry into and persistence in the engineering professorate, and that these factors are discoverable and accessible through quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods means. We aim to recruit Native American engineering undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty to capture current and retrospective perceptions of their journey toward and participation in the engineering professorate. We will collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data, and disseminate findings in ways that advance foundational knowledge of the field. In so doing, we will lay the groundwork for subsequent studies on broadening participation of Native Americans in the engineering faculty.