Bowman Publishes Study on Underrepresented Student Success
Nicholas Bowman, senior research fellow in the Social and Education Policy Research Program, co-authored a study exploring the findings of a project funded by the NSF-IUSE program, which employs a sociotechnical systems lens and framework to identify and evaluate organization-wide capacities and change catalysts in a predominantly white institution's college of engineering.
Data analysis is ongoing but some of the preliminary findings include that interactions with their friends was the top social system enabler for URM students and the lack in numbers (and hence the lack of diversity and identity), curricular and instructional methods, and high school preparation were cited as the most important technical system barriers these students faced.