Indexed in
"IT MAKES ME WANNA GO OUT AND HELP PEOPLE": ENHANCING AFRICAN AMERICAN YOUTH'S PERCEPTIONS OF ENGINEERING
ABSTRACT
Researchers theorize that identification with a career field is achieved when there is alignment between student values and their perceptions of the values a career field meets. Stereotypically, engineering is perceived to align with status values, such as high pay, but the reality is that engineering is a collaborative enterprise that solves critical social challenges. To portray a more accurate view of the field, we designed a summer camp experience around the Grand Challenges for Engineering to highlight the impacts of engineering on society and our everyday lives. We evaluated the effects of this camp in reframing engineering as an altruistic career for grade 8−10 African American students who came from a low-income, urban community. Interviews and surveys assessed the impact of the camp on students' self-efficacy and interest in engineering. We used qualitative coding in our interview data and a combination of nonparametric and intensive longitudinal models for our quantitative data. Analyses indicated that students' engineering self-efficacy increased. Intensive sampling of attitudes suggested that camp activities that were rated higher on "helping people" received higher ratings of interest and self-efficacy. Through the interviews, we found that the camp led to meaningful changes in students' appreciation of engineering and, in some cases, new interests in pursuing engineering as a career. Framing engineering as an altruistic career path led to meaningful changes in students' definitions of engineering and their connection of engineering to their career interests. Future research should explore extensions of this work to other populations of students.