Work In Progress: Engineering Faculty and Role Models

The impact of role models in inspiring individuals to achieve their life goals is widely discussed in literature. Role models are known to support retention, recruitment, and sense of belonging in STEM and engineering disciplines. College faculty members, and particularly those with identities with limited representation in STEM, such as women faculty members and faculty members of color are known to play a key role in enrollment and performance of students sharing their identities. Given what is known about role modeling, this study aims to explore the perceptions of engineering faculty members about their own function as role models for future generations of STEM professionals. Furthermore, we explore the role models that inspired current engineering faculty members to choose their paths. In this regard, we aim to assess role models (media or real-life individuals) that influenced the current engineering faculty members' identity development. Our research questions are: 1) What kind of role models did current engineering faculty members have while growing up? 2) How do these beliefs and experiences about role modeling vary across gender and race/ethnicity? 3) Do existing engineering faculty members consider themselves as role models? and 4) How often and in which areas do engineering faculty members believe they support the growth of their students as role models? To answer our research questions, we collected faculty members' responses through an ongoing anonymous survey of engineering faculty members distributed across the 30 largest engineering universities in the US. To analyze data we used descriptive statistics and qualitative analysis for open ended questions. The results showed that characters in STEM related TV shows inspired the majority of the faculty members followed by science fiction movies and popular scientists respectively. Men, in comparison to women, were more inspired by role models from all categories. Teachers and family members were considered as the greatest source of inspiration and encouragement to pursue a STEM career by both men and women. Furthermore almost 88% of the current engineering faculty members consider themselves as role models. The data indicates that while faculty members support students' growth in technical skills and professional behaviors, little support is offered for wellbeing practices, emotional understanding, and socially responsible beliefs. We expect the findings of the study would bring new insights into the role modeling practices for development of engineering identity among younger generations.