Perceived Role of Institutional Supports for African American Community College Transfer Students' Engineering Success

Abstract

Many obstacles can derail the success of African American community college engineering transfer students at predominately white research institutions (PWIs). The extent to which students successfully transition from community colleges into Colleges of Engineering could be a result of having minimal access to finances. A barrier to their retention could be the lack of awareness of and participation in co-curricular activities. Other challenges could include having inadequate opportunities to develop academic support systems, having limited availability of African American faculty role models, and encountering few occasions to participate in social networking activities. Potential challenges to increasing students’ engineering success at (PWIs) could depend on the availability of institutional supports. Institutional supports can be helpful to facilitate student retention, but these supports are not always implemented and centralized as functions under the College of Engineering (COE). This study employed a Social Constructivism paradigm to understand African American community college transfer students’ experiences as they transitioned into the COE at a public 4-year PWI. A Pragmatism lens was used to identify the institutional mechanisms that explained how students achieved engineering success. Three African American engineering transfer students participated in semi-structured interviews which allowed access to their unique narratives, their personal reflections, and their shared experiences. Data were complemented with three qualitative interview records from a 2006 study conducted by the Research Institute for STEM Education (RISE). These two datasets were compiled and analyzed. Recommendations were then framed using Swail’s Geometric Model of Student Persistence and Retention to address the question of how institutional mechanisms and transitional experiences impact African American community college transfer students’ engineering success. Based upon the elements of the institutional factor of Swail’s model and an analysis of the student narratives, this research proposes a new reorganized framework for the role of the institution in student persistence and retention. Recommendations focus on specific stages of the African American community college student’s transition to the COE: recruitment and retention. Several key points that I propose re-conceptualizes Swail’s framework. These key points include centralizing recruitment of African American community college pre-engineering students under the COE, institutionalizing student engagement by recognizing African American community college engineering transfer students as core members of the COE’s team, and giving the current transfer students agency in retention. Institutions must also encourage and provide opportunities for students to serve as role models in the community. These are some of the ways that institutions must address student retention from a holistic approach to help students complete their engineering degrees.