WIP: Testing an Integrated framework of Motivation and Identity in a Doctoral Engineering Context

The purpose of this research category, work in progress (WIP) paper is to qualitatively test and refine our motivation-identity conceptual framework within the doctoral engineering teaching assistant (DETA) population. We developed our motivation-identity framework through previous qualitative research investigating doctoral engineering students' future goals where identity emerged through their discourse. To capture multiple roles in graduate programs, we chose a DETA population to test our integrated framework for transferability. A codebook containing codes, categories, and themes that we created through our past research will be used to test our framework on a DETA population. We collected two sets of qualitative data from 16 participants: timeline and interview. These two pieces of data will be coded together to validate and expand the framework by using a directed content analysis. By understanding the ways in which identity and motivation interact and influence the doctoral experience we can target aspects of doctoral training that may serve to undercut or suppress development of these affective characteristics.