Factors influencing engineering graduate students' professional intentions

What is it about?

This paper holistically explains how graduate students in engineering learn about and come to identify with faculty careers. The findings from this ethnographic study show that various factors including students’ social identity (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, citizenship status), personal factors (e.g., marital status), participation in research groups, faculty prototype, and individual- and institutional-level experiences influence engineering graduate students’ professorial intention. Based on the findings, a conceptual framework termed as TMEPI (a theoretical model of engineering professorial intentions) is developed.

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Photo by Tra Nguyen on Unsplash

Photo by Tra Nguyen on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The findings from this study has immediate implications for mentoring practice in graduate programs in various fields of study that use research groups as sites for teaching and learning. Research group supervisors should be cognizant of the significant role that the culture of and interactions within a research group play in developing students’ professional identities with regard to faculty careers.