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Black engineering transfer students face unique challenges while navigating the transfer process from a community college to a 4-year institution. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the experiences of these students and the ways in which they adjust to the 4-year school. We identify specific challenges noted by Black engineering transfer students in their experiences related to: (1) heuristics of teaching and learning that they had to adapt to in order to successfully navigate new campus environments; (2) information gaps that students encountered in what faculty seemed to expect them to already know; and (3) problems in having to adjust to the differences in the academic demands of the 4-year engineering program. In addition to unpacking our findings along these specific domains, we attend to the potential impact of having these challenges in a large, urban, metropolitan area.

Introduction: While a considerable amount of extant scholarship describes the importance of and strategies for improving the postsecondary pathways of Black engineering students, most literature is contextualized within 4-year institutions. Objectives: The purpose of this article is to illuminate Black engineering students' experiences at community colleges in order to understand ways in which they engage different types of 2-year institutional support. Methods: We draw from data obtained through a series of focus groups and interviews facilitated between fall 2018 and fall 2019 with 13 engineering undergraduates. Results: Findings include evidence of important connections with faculty at 2-year colleges, such as positive engagement with them inside the classroom, as well as during office hours and general advising. In addition, we describe support from academic advisors regarding transfer pathways, as well as from campus staff who helped identify scholarships or other valuable resources on campus. Conclusion: We offer implications and conclusions that highlight the tremendous capacity of community colleges to support and educate future Black engineers. We also discuss the significance of underrepresented students of color working closely with faculty, adding that research to date notes that these interactions often tenuous for underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities. Finally, we discuss ways in which our results can inform the broader landscape of undergraduate engineering education, which--like other STEM fields--has often created unwelcoming and competitive environments that lead to student attrition for students from all demographic backgrounds.

Engineering for US All (e4usa) is a National Science Foundation-funded first-of-its-kind initiative aimed at making engineering more inclusive and accessible to underrepresented populations. The "for us all" mission of e4usa encompasses both students and teachers. Paramount to the success of e4usa was the construction of professional development (PD) experiences to prepare and support teachers with different levels of engineering teaching experience as they implemented the e4usa yearlong course. The perspectives of nine teachers with varying degrees of engineering teaching experience were examined during two PD opportunities to compare experiences and dynamics between the teachers. Data sources consisting of focus groups and artifacts created during the PD were analyzed using inductive coding and the constant comparative method. The distinct themes that emerged included teachers redefining engineering, growing confidence to teach engineering, benefiting from the PD, receiving support from other teachers, experiencing imposter syndrome, and renewing a passion for engineering education. The results provide implications for how engineering education PD may be developed to allow for reciprocal support and mentoring that supports all teachers regardless of engineering teaching experience. The results also inform future e4usa efforts and aim to change the structure of high school engineering education.

The growth of undergraduate entrepreneurship education programs and research, both within and outside of business programs, has led to a diverse array of academic literature on this topic. The diversity of perspectives has led to many conceptual and educational challenges that remain unresolved within the literature. The following conceptual paper offers a critical perspective on challenges that have been identified. A narrative-style literature review was conducted to explore challenges emerging from both (a) the practice of teaching entrepreneurship and (b) the definitions and assessment of entrepreneurial mindsets and skills that result from those education processes in entrepreneurship education, particularly within an undergraduate engineering education context. We achieve this objective by discussing previously dispersed sources of literature from disciplines that have critically discussed and explored entrepreneurial themes, such as business education, sociology, psychology, and philosophy. Contemporary debates within multiple disciplines are integrated and organized as challenges to inspire new theoretical discussions among scholars, educators, and other practitioners that can inform a more comprehensive way to conceive and assess entrepreneurship in engineering education. Seven challenges were identified ranging from the definition of entrepreneurship in education to the role of ethics in the teaching and assessment of entrepreneurship. We use these seven challenges and research questions as a starting point for the disambiguation of the working definition of entrepreneurship in the context of engineering education.

Among the theories that have been advanced for improving the participation of students in STEM is the postulation that family involvement in students' schooling is critical, as early as the precollege years. The prevalence of knowledge about the importance of familial support for students' success in STEM fields notwithstanding, the corpus of scholarship that explores the nexus between family support and Black student STEM success is limited. In this article, the authors utilize data collected through interviews, focus groups, and demographic questionnaires to explore the influence of immediate and extended family members in the STEM trajectories of eight undergraduates who were born in--or whose parents emigrated from--African or Caribbean countries. The qualitative study is grounded in Coleman's theory of social capital, which posits that there are 3 forms of social capital that families can bestow on children. These forms of social capital are: (a) obligations, expectations, and trustworthiness of structures; 2) information channels; and 3) norms and effective sanctions. Results from this investigation reveal that parents were intentional about the decisions that they made in their children's K--12 school years and that families sought out ways to support students through cocurricular engagement. Implications include a call to develop programs of support that recognize the important and often unique role that families and community play in the lives of Black (immigrant-origin) students, particularly those who are pursuing STEM degrees.

Background: The potential for broadening participation in engineering among Black undergraduates via transfer pathways is considerable, given their large share of the community college population. By understanding the opportunities and challenges presented within the context of transfer, this potential can be realized. Purpose/hypothesis: The goal of this study is to explore ways in which Black students who transitioned from a community college to a 4‐year engineering program describe the institutional factors affecting their transfer processes. Design/method: Drawing from a 3‐year qualitative research study involving approximately 27 Black engineering transfer students at a large, predominantly White, institution, we present data derived through interviews and focus groups with these undergraduates. Results: Participants expressed that they benefited from supportive institutional agents who offered engineering transfer‐related resources. These included both faculty and advisors in their mostly Minority Serving Community Colleges (MSCCs) as well as advisors from the engineering college at the 4‐year institution. In addition, respondents described being part of a number of community college programs, including some for Black collegians, that offered resources for transfer. Nonetheless, some participants shared problems that emerged during the transfer process, including having to self‐navigate confusing transfer websites or self‐advocate to resolve erroneous admissions decisions. Conclusions: We suggest a need to elevate MSCCs as learning environments that can produce future Black engineers. We also recommend a systems‐level approach that brings together community colleges and 4‐year institutions while also accounting for issues related to resources as well as power dynamics that students may encounter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will describe the promise Hispanic‐serving Community Colleges (HSCCs) have for creating a culture of servingness, including curricular and co‐curricular supports, transfer infrastructure, engineering identity development, and other mechanisms that can positively impact Latinx engineering learners. We will outline current research and trends regarding Latinx engineering collegians at HSCCs. In addition, we will provide recommendations for how community college practitioners at HSCCs can promote a culture of servingness and encourage the development of Latinx engineering students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study compares high-performing Black male transfer students' social groupings. Black American men in the study engaged with a heterogeneous set of peers in community college. By contrast, Black African men most often worked alongside their peers from African countries. Results also indicate that the participants' community college acknowledged within-group diversity and created an ethos that supported their transfer aspirations. Implications include a call to expand research on successful Black male STEM experiences in community colleges, and to develop a greater awareness of intra-racial dynamics at both two- and four-year institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]