From left to right: Dr. Chantra Nhien, Dr. Lara Perez-Felkner, Dr. Annie Wofford and Dr. Bret Staudt Willet
Aligning Graduate Education and Workforce Opportunities: A Robust, Equity-Focused Landscape Scan of Computing Terminology
About
In this mixed methods research project, our team is investigating the (mis)alignment of computing-related terminology used to describe master’s and doctoral training at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) and that which is employed in computing-related job advertisements. With the goal of examining terminology as a potential barrier to racial equity in the computing and technological workforce, this mixed methods project will offer a robust, equity- focused landscape scan that establishes a typology of computing-related terminology.
Project Phases
This two-year project (2023-2025) will commence over two phases of research, with four research questions, and uses an exploratory sequential mixed methods design. Phase 1 (2023-2024) will qualitatively address the nature of computing-related terminology at MSIs, using document analysis of program information and semi-structured interviews with 50 faculty and administrators. Phase 2 (2024) will use latent Dirichlet allocation topic modeling and log odds ratio comparison with web scraped data to quantitatively explore terminology in computing-related job advertisements as well as the alignment between terminology used in job advertisements and graduate degree programs.
Funding Support
This research project, entitled “Aligning Graduate Education and Workforce Opportunities: A Robust, Equity-Focused Landscape Scan of Computing Terminology” is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, grant #G-2022-19569
Dr. Lara Perez-Felkner
(she/her/ella)
Co-Principal Investigator and Associate Professor of Higher Education and Sociology
Dr. Bret Staudt Willet
(he/him)
Co-Principal Investigator and Assistant Professor of Instructional Systems and Learning Technology
Dr. Chantra Nhien
(he/him)
Research Consultant
Anum Fatima
(she/her)
Graduate Research Assistant and Ph.D. Student in Higher Education
Xinting Wu
(she/her)
Research Affiliate and Ph.D. Student in Higher Education
In conducting this project, the Sloan Foundation afforded us the opportunity to build a panel of experts with related knowledge about the issues at hand. Our advisory board consists of four leading experts of issues concerning equity in postsecondary computing contexts, supporting MSIs through policy and practice, advanced data science methods in STEM education, and computer science (research, teaching, and administration) at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs).
Our advisory board includes:
- Dr. Mike Hoa Nguyen, Assistant Professor of Education, New York University
- Dr. Jianwei Niu, Interim Dean of University College and Professor of Computer Science, University of Texas at San Antonio
- Dr. Sarah L. Rodriguez, Associate Professor of Engineering Education, Virginia Tech University
- Dr. Josh Rosenberg, Associate Professor of STEM Education/Science, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
