A Qualitative Study of Integrated Computing Experiences and Career Development in Community College Engineering Students

In this Work In Progress in the Research Category we present a qualitative study that explores how computing instruction experiences may mediate the progression of social and cognitive factors associated with career development in community college engineering students. The rapidly evolving technological landscape has created an increased need for an engineering workforce with computing skills. Traditionally, policymakers, educators and researchers have focused on K-12 and four-year secondary institutions as the primary arena for addressing our workforce development needs. However, community colleges, which enroll over one-third of U.S. undergraduates, represent an important, and not yet fully utilized resource for training future engineers. However, there is a dearth of engineering education research that seeks to critically understand the experiences of community college engineering students in learning computational skills. To address this gap, our study includes semi-structured interviews with first- and second-year students enrolled in an engineering program at a public two-year institution in the midwestern United States. Our work is informed by a social cognitive career theory (SCCT) perspective from which we examine how engineering course learning experiences involving integrated computing instruction influence students' self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations. In alignment with SCCT, our analysis will aim to identify personal attributes and external environmental factors that mediate students' differential responses to computational instruction. This pilot study is the first part of a larger research effort directed towards learning how to support students as they navigate the community college pathway to engineering.