This engineering education research project seeks to create a theoretical basis that can be used to guide interventions to engage under-represented students in engineering and build their self-efficacy. The project, based on Social Cognitive Career Theory, will measure the self-efficacy of minority and majority students at predominately white institutions to determine the types of interventions that are best able to improve minority students' self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is a strong predictor of academic career choice and persistence. The knowledge gained from this investigation will be used to design a research-based intervention to improve minority students' self-efficacy. Dissemination of the results of this project can inform intervention and outreach strategies aimed at under-represented students at other institutions, and may have lasting impact on the number of engineers who come from currently under-represented groups.
