Examining the Cultural Wealth of Underrepresented Minority Engineering Persisters
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 144, Issue 2
Abstract
One of the most significant challenges facing engineering education in the United States is the persistent problem of the inclusion and retention of certain racial and ethnic groups. Academic and institutional factors, both precollege and college, have been linked to the underrepresentation of certain race/ethnicity groups (URM) in engineering programs and the engineering workforce. The authors present an exploratory study of junior and senior URM engineering students who have successfully navigated through the undergraduate engineering programs at a predominantly White public urban research university. The purpose of the study was to describe how these URM engineering persisters used different forms of cultural wealth to achieve their goal of obtaining an engineering degree. The descriptive quantitative data indicated that the persisters used several types of cultural wealth, with aspirational, linguistic, familial, and peer social capital the most prevalent. Focus group discussions revealed how the persisters remained focused on their goal of becoming engineers, used the family as a source of support and motivation, and found support from the faculty in the competitive culture of engineering.
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Acknowledgments
This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation Award 1240299 from the Research Initiation Grant for Engineering Education (RIGEE) program awarded to the first three authors. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The authors would like to thank Krystal A. Foxx, who served as a graduate research assistant on this project from 2013 to 2014.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 144 • Issue 2 • April 2018
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 4, 2017
Accepted: Sep 13, 2017
Published online: Dec 23, 2017
Published in print: Apr 1, 2018
Discussion open until: May 23, 2018
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