Institutional Agents' Role in Supporting Low-Income Engineering Undergraduate Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine how institutional agents (IAs) who lead S-STEM programs support low-income students (LIS) in navigating academic and social expectations in engineering, and the interpersonal and institutional barriers IAs encounter while providing this support. Although prior research has established the significant influence of IAs on student outcomes such as belonging and persistence (Aizenman et al., 2022; Bensimon et al., 2019; Gattis et al., 2019; Rodriguez et al., 2020; Zhu et al., 2021), the perspectives of IAs themselves remains understudied. Additionally, although research on LIS in STEM has expanded (Hansen et al., 2024; Jones and Emenike, 2024; Ovink et al., 2024), less attention has been given to their experiences specifically within engineering. This study employed general qualitative research methods informed by interpretive description (Thorne, 2008, 2016) and comparative case study (CCS) principles (Bartlett and Vavrus, 2017), guided by Stanton-Salazar's (2011) conceptual framework on institutional agents and the power-conscious framework (Linder, 2018). Data sources included interviews with 14 engineering-focused S-STEM PIs and co-PIs, observations, and S-STEM program documents. Analysis centered participants' perspectives, with attention to how IAs' ideologies and institutional contexts shaped their understandings of LIS in engineering and their support practices. Findings indicate that while S-STEM programs contribute to scholarship recipients' retention and persistence, most support practices focus on helping students navigate existing academic and social expectations in engineering, rather than transforming those norms to reflect the lived experiences of LIS and other minoritized student populations. IAs' ability to provide direct and integrative support was largely dependent on their professional networks, which functioned as the infrastructure for support. Applying the power-conscious framework (Linder, 2018) revealed that barriers to support, even at the interpersonal level, were rooted in larger systems of inequity and oppression. These findings extend existing literature by centering the experiences of IAs in engineering contexts, highlighting the influence of their ideologies on support practices, and the need for cultural and structural transformation within engineering rather than solely relying on student-focused support strategies. Integrating the conceptual framework on institutional agents and power-conscious framework led to the development of an analytic model future research can use to ensure they apply a power lens in engineering education research.