To ensure sustained U.S. competitiveness and prosperity in the global economy, the United States must promote greater growth in its engineering workforce, especially among underrepresented populations. Since its inception, the National Science Foundation has maintained great interest in activities that promote broadening participation among underrepresented groups. To increase participation in engineering, new knowledge must be generated on how best to broadening participation at every juncture of the educational pipeline, including the K-12 level. Very little, if any, research has investigated the factors that influence broadening participation among rural, underrepresented students within the K-12 educational enterprise. In the southern region of the United States, the Alabama Black Belt bears an uneven burden of poverty, where many low income and underrepresented groups are disproportionately affected. With this in mind, the investigators proposed to collect multiple levels of data across 15 school districts in the Black Belt region to pinpoint educational barriers and create action plans that can mitigate and/or eliminate these educational obstacles for rural underrepresented students. This project will likely have a tremendous impact on the engineering workforce in the Black Belt region and beyond.
Using Social Cognitive Career Theory as the theoretical framework, the investigators outlined a comprehensive project to study the issues often associated with low income students and underrepresented students entering the engineering enterprise and determine the educational challenges that they experience with pursuing engineering. Because of the cross-cutting nature of the project, a multi-disciplinary research team, composed of engineers, scientists, education faculty, and research staff, will be formed to execute this comprehensive study. Additionally, advisory committees, representing local, state, and federal interests, will be created to help promote the project and ensure its success with identifying the educational challenges and recommending specific strategies to address the identified challenges.
