College of Design – School of Building Construction – Ph.D. Proposal Defense –Candace Washington

Date: December 8th, 2025

Time: 2:30 pm- 5 pm Eastern Time

Location: Microsoft Teams

Meeting Information: 

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_Mjk2NTI3ZTgtMzRlMC00YTdlLWIxMTAtZTdmMmQ4ZDQzMWYy%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22482198bb-ae7b-4b25-8b7a-6d7f32faa083%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%220b841314-2416-4ca5-ac82-1078a281349e%22%7d

Committee:

• Dr. Ece Erdogmus, Founding Dean, College of Architecture, Art, and Construction, Clemson University (co-advisor and co-committee chair)

• Dr. Eunhwa Yang, School of Building Construction, College of Design, Georgia Institute of Technology (co-advisor and co-committee chair)

• Dr. Jing Wen, School of Building Construction, College of Design, Georgia Institute of Technology

• Dr. Carol Colatrella,  School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Georgia Institute of Technology

• Dr. Heidi Diefus-Dux,  Department of Biological Systems Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

   

Title: Enhancing High School Counselors’ Knowledge and Confidence in Promoting Construction Management Careers: A Mixed Method Study Using a VR Intervention

Abstract

The U.S. construction industry faces a significant and escalating shortage of construction management (CM) professionals driven by an aging workforce, rapid increases in project demand and complexity, and a limited pipeline of students entering CM degree programs, conditions that are further compounded by disconnects between the construction industry workforce needs and the career guidance students typically receive in high school settings. Although CM offers stable, high-opportunity pathways, high school students often receive minimal or inaccurate information about the profession. Career guidance counselors, who have a critical role in shaping students' postsecondary trajectories, frequently report limited knowledge of CM, low confidence in promoting CM careers, and minimal exposure to the professional roles and responsibilities within construction management. These conditions impede students' access to CM pathways and contribute to long-term workforce shortages. Addressing these advising gaps is essential for strengthening the national talent pipeline and aligning postsecondary career guidance counselors with the needs of the construction management sector.

To address gaps in career guidance counselors' knowledge and confidence regarding pathways and professional roles in CM, this study incorporates a virtual reality (VR)–supported professional development component that exposes career guidance counselors to core concepts and builds their confidence in explaining and recommending these disciplines and career paths to students. Emerging virtual and augmented reality platforms offer opportunities to enhance career guidance counselors' understanding of CM by reducing logistical, financial, and safety barriers to field-based exposure. The VR module incorporated in this study originates from the NSF-funded Virtual/Augmented-Reality-Based Discipline Exploration Rotations (VADER) project, developed to support exploration of Architectural Engineering and Construction management/engineering. While VADER-R was initially designed as a recruitment tool for four-year academic programs, its application for high school career guidance counselors' professional development remains understudied. Limited empirical evidence exists on how VR-based discipline-exploration modules influence career guidance counselors' advising, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, or willingness to recommend CM careers, underscoring the need for innovative, scalable Professional Development (PD) models that strengthen career guidance counselors' preparedness in workforce-critical fields.

This mixed-methods dissertation examines the impact of a professional development workshop that integrates the VADER-R virtual module with targeted CM instructional content to enhance career guidance counselors' CM-specific knowledge and advising confidence. Grounded in Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), the study uses a validated and adapted Career Counseling Self-Efficacy Scale tailored for CM advising (CCSES-CM) to assess changes in self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and perceived contextual supports or barriers, before and after the intervention. To further interpret changes observed in the quantitative phase, a subset of participants will be invited to participate in semi-structured interviews, with the interview data analyzed thematically. Participants will be selected using a purposive, criterion-based approach to ensure representation from individuals exhibiting distinct patterns of pre–post change in advising self-efficacy. This strategy allows the qualitative phase to capture diverse perspectives and deepen understanding of how the intervention influenced career guidance counselors' beliefs and advising intentions.

The anticipated contributions of this study are substantial. Theoretically, this research extends SCCT by applying its mechanisms to career guidance counselors as career influencers, offering a foundation for a specialized theoretical schema, SCCT-for-Advisors, that models how counselor learning experiences shape advising beliefs and behaviors in CM. Methodologically, the study introduces the first validated CM-specific adaptation of the CCSES instrument (CCSES-CM) and provides a replicable mixed-methods framework for assessing VR-enhanced counselor PD. In practice, the research aims to develop a scalable PD model that can be adopted by school districts, CM academic programs, and workforce development organizations to expand and diversify the CM talent pipeline. By strengthening career guidance counselors' capacity to communicate accurate CM career information, the study supports improved alignment between postsecondary advising systems and construction management workforce needs, contributing to long-term sustainability, competitiveness, and innovation within the construction management profession.