Collaborative Research: Research Initiation: Examining Engineering Technology Transfer Students' Experiences and Social Community

Engineering technicians and technologists are an essential part of the workforce. Due to recent advancements in technology, many engineering technicians, often holding an associate degree or a certificate from a community college, need to advance their technical knowledge and skills to remain competitive professionally. One common pathway for these engineering technicians to seek career advancement is to transfer to 4-year institutions and pursue baccalaureate degrees in engineering technology (ET) programs related to their interests and professional background. Yet, despite the need for support systems attentive to this particular student population, ET students are often provided primarily with enrollment information and receive minimal support for persistence and retention in their academic programs. This lack of support can affect students’ performance and outcomes, particularly when they feel like outsiders compared to continuing students, feel overlooked by the institution, or feel disconnected from their peers. To address these challenges, this study will examine the experiences, behaviors, and decisions of the underexamined population of transfer students in ET programs, and how these factors may affect their development and sense of community. This project will support the goals of the Research Initiation in Engineering Formation (RIEF) program by: a) studying the experiences and professional development of engineering technologists, b) identifying ways to better support ET students’ matriculation and retention, and c) broadening the community of engineering education researchers. Results from the project will inform educators, administrators, and policymakers about how institutional barriers shape ET transfer students’ commitments and what mechanisms can support their persistence in ET majors. This aligns with NSF priorities to address workforce demand for skilled engineering technicians and technologists. This project will identify the experiences and challenges of ET transfer students to inform how institutions can better support their development of social community and matriculation into the engineering workforce. This study will generate knowledge about ET transfer students by addressing the following research questions: (1) What are the experiences and challenges of engineering technology transfer students? and (2) How do these experiences and challenges impact engineering technology transfer students’ development of social community? Through a qualitative interpretivist lens guided by a social community model, this study will examine the academic experiences and challenges of Wayne State University’s ET transfer students. The goal is to inform the design of social, academic, and professional opportunities that better meet these students’ needs. In this mentored project, the project team will collect and analyze institutional data and conduct interviews with undergraduate ET transfer students. The interview data will be analyzed using thematic analysis to identify emerging themes and interpret ET transfer students’ experiences. A social community model will serve as an analytic framework for assessing the interview data. The findings will help lay the groundwork for understanding how institutions can better support transfer students in ET programs. They will help educators and decision-makers identify institutional factors that could promote or hinder ET transfer students’ social engagement, academic success, and professional development. Additionally, the knowledge generated will support efforts to strengthen the engineering and engineering technology workforce, while also inspiring new research questions and future studies in this area. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.