TY - JOUR
T1 - Active agents and fictive kin
T2 - Learning from pell-eligible engineering students’ class standpoint
AU - Carrigan, Coleen
AU - Hauser, Jarman
AU - Riskin, Eve
AU - Mody-Pan, Priti
AU - Borgford-Parnell, Jim
AU - Wiggin, Dawn
AU - Winter, Scott
AU - Pinkham, Scott
AU - Cunningham, Sonya
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by Begell House, Inc.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are underrepresented in engineering majors. To generate visionary solutions for our complex world, engineering needs diverse perspectives at the table. Individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds broaden the potential for engineering applications’ purpose. Our qualitative study of Pell-eligible students identifies challenges to their success and unique sources of inspiration and support. In our action-oriented study, semi-structured interviews illuminated how participants navigate their education within structures that privilege wealthier students. In our analysis, we used a constructivist framework that can amplify the experiences of these students and elucidate the institutional factors that either support or jeopardize their persistence. We found that Pell-eligible students are cognizant of their class standpoint and this shapes their relationship with engineering institutions of higher education. Participants’ narratives illuminated either an oppositional or reconcilable relationship with engineering, a pattern we analyze in both structural and individual terms, using cultural reproduction and standpoint theories. We also found fictive kin relations play an important role in participants’ persistence. Students from low socioeconomic status experience face unique constraints in engineering. Their narratives provide clues as to what transformations engineering education institutions can enact to enable students from all class standpoints to contribute to the engineering profession.
AB - Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are underrepresented in engineering majors. To generate visionary solutions for our complex world, engineering needs diverse perspectives at the table. Individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds broaden the potential for engineering applications’ purpose. Our qualitative study of Pell-eligible students identifies challenges to their success and unique sources of inspiration and support. In our action-oriented study, semi-structured interviews illuminated how participants navigate their education within structures that privilege wealthier students. In our analysis, we used a constructivist framework that can amplify the experiences of these students and elucidate the institutional factors that either support or jeopardize their persistence. We found that Pell-eligible students are cognizant of their class standpoint and this shapes their relationship with engineering institutions of higher education. Participants’ narratives illuminated either an oppositional or reconcilable relationship with engineering, a pattern we analyze in both structural and individual terms, using cultural reproduction and standpoint theories. We also found fictive kin relations play an important role in participants’ persistence. Students from low socioeconomic status experience face unique constraints in engineering. Their narratives provide clues as to what transformations engineering education institutions can enact to enable students from all class standpoints to contribute to the engineering profession.
KW - And mathematics (STEM)
KW - Diversity in science
KW - Engineering
KW - Engineering education
KW - Higher education
KW - Socioeconomic status (SES)
KW - Technology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071160243&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85071160243&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2019025657
DO - 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2019025657
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85071160243
SN - 1072-8325
VL - 25
SP - 149
EP - 168
JO - Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering
JF - Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering
IS - 2
ER -