Validation of the climate scale in the persistence of engineers in the academy survey (peas)

Abstract

This research paper describes the validation procedure for the Persistence of Engineers in the Academy Survey (PEAS). Faculty are identified as the pivotal resource around which the outcomes of higher education revolve; therefore, it is essential to understand who they are, what they do, and whether, how, and why they are changing. As one critical component of PEAS, this paper describes the procedure for the validation of a scale to probe factors that may affect an individual's persistence as a faculty member in relation to intersecting social identities including gender identity, race/ethnicity, disability status, and social class. PEAS was designed to reveal insight into the departmental level processes and the different climates produced by those processes for faculty members. Data collected by PEAS can begin to shed light on the factors influencing important outcomes, such as job satisfaction and employee retention. The finalized PEAS, as a tool for administrators to gauge departmental level climate related to employee persistence, is expected to contribute to the development of a more diverse workforce in academic engineering.