UW–Madison’s Brian Burt is the lead author on a new paper published in the Teachers College Record titled, “Black Men in Engineering Graduate Programs: A Theoretical Model of the Motivation to Persist.”
Burt is an assistant professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, and a research scientist with Wisconsin’s Equity & Inclusion Laboratory, housed in the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
The background and purpose of the paper — which Burt co-authored with Iowa State’s Justin J. Roberson and Jarrel T. Johnson, and Miami (Ohio) University’s Anne Bonanno — are described as follows:
A growing body of research highlights the experiences of Black men students who successfully navigate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational pathways. Many Black men graduate students in engineering describe moments when their advisors, peers, and, at times, community members make them feel different because of their race and gender. Needed is a better understanding of what motivates Black men to persist in graduate school despite such challenges.
This study advances a new theoretical model, “Black Men’s Graduate Engineering Motivation” (BMGEM), to describe the overlaying factors and sources of motivation — and their interrelations — that influence Black men in engineering graduate programs to persist.
Learn more about the paper on the Teachers College Record website, here.