Examining student background and dimensions of engineering identity: recognition, competence and interest at an HSI

Introduction Engineering identity has been shown to be strongly associated with persistence among early-career engineering students. Understanding how the early engineering identities of diverse undergraduate students vary can help inform educators' efforts to facilitate engineering identity development, in turn producing a more representative population of undergraduate engineering students. This work explores how race/ethnicity, gender, and first-generation college student (FGCS) status are related to differences in engineering identity (and the components that make up our measure of engineering identity) among 900 early-career undergraduate engineering students. Methods A survey was distributed during six consecutive semesters to students enrolled in an Introduction to Engineering course that is the first required course taken by engineering majors at a public Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in the Southwestern United States. The survey asked students about their gender identity, racial/ethnic identity, first-generation college student (FGCS) status, and about their agreement with a series of statements regarding their engineering identity. Data obtained via the survey are analyzed here using OLS regression to examine how race/ethnicity, gender, and first-generation status are associated with engineering identity, and to examine how specific dimensions of engineering identity vary in relation to student background. Results Our analyses show no significant differences between men and women in terms of their engineering identity, and few significant differences between minoritized and White students. Students who reported that they will be the first in their family to get a college degree, however, had significantly lower overall engineering identity scores ( b = −.215; p < .01). These results indicate that first-generation college student (FGCS) status is significantly associated with engineering identity among early-career students at HSIs. Further examination of the various subscale dimensions of engineering identity provides a more nuanced understanding of how particular aspects of identity may vary across students with different backgrounds. Discussion To increase diversity and the success of minoritized students, engineering programs - particularly those at minority-serving institutions - should focus on developing the engineering identity of first-generation college students (FGCSs).