Seeking Alignment: Exploring Underrepresented Minority Students' Motivations to Pursue Doctoral Degrees in Engineering

This Work in Progress Research paper aims to shed light on the reasons that inspire minoritized students to pursue a Ph.D. degree in engineering. Thus, this study investigates the motivations that URM students give as their deciding factors for pursuing doctoral degrees. We examine the research question: How do URM students describe their decision to pursue a doctorate in an engineering discipline? To explore our question, we conducted a modified grounded theory analysis of survey data collected from 51 URM students during a summer workshop held prior to the commencement of their respective programs. Their answers to open-ended questions and other contextual details formed the basis of our data sample. Our diverse sample includes representations of students from various engineering disciplines as well as various racial and ethnic backgrounds. Our study employs the principles of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) to analyze the environmental variables, personal outcome expectations, and other factors that influence students' decisions to pursue a doctoral degree in their respective fields. Next steps of this work will employ SCCT, as we can gain a deeper understanding of students' motivations and identify the factors that play a significant role in their decision-making processes. Continuing work in this area can be valuable to engineering graduate programs by providing insights into how URM students can be supported throughout their degrees.