CASTLE Seminar Series - Allison Godwin

Assistant Professor of Engineering Education, Purdue UniversityTitle: The Importance of STEM Identities: Using Structural Equation Modeling to Understand Engineering ChoiceAbstract: Choosing engineering in college is a nuanced decision that is not well understood. Prior to college, many students do not have experience with engineering but ultimately choose an engineering career. Additionally, women continue to be underrepresented in engineering degree paths. As the need for new and diverse engineering solutions increases, understanding the attitudes of students who do and do not choose engineering is an important to the recruitment and retention of a talented and diverse pool of students. The framework of Critical Engineering Agency (CEA) was utilized to understand student attitudes and beliefs, specifically their math and physics identities as well as agency beliefs, for choosing engineering. Agency beliefs are defined in this work as how students see a choice of STEM-related careers as a way to make a positive impact in the world.Structural equation modeling was used with a nationally representative college population of 6,772 students from 50, 2- and 4-year institutions to model how these latent constructs are related to one another and predict the likelihood of a career in engineering. The results show that engineering students' identities at the beginning of college are comprised math and physics identities. Additionally, student identities, particularly physics identity, and agency beliefs are significant predictors of engineering choice (explaining 20.2% of the variance). Agency beliefs are a stronger predictor of engineering choice for women, which may help address the gender gap seen within engineering. The development of the CEA model and application through structural equation modeling adds to the current understanding of what leads students to choose engineering between high school and college.