Latino High School Students' Funds of Knowledge: A Sociocultural Analysis of Engineering Design Challenges

• In Event: 75.060 - Roundtable Session 33
  In Roundtable Session: 75.060-3 - Roundtable 1: Social Justice in Access to Higher Education

Abstract

This exploratory study is based on the assumption that creating a bridge between different formal resources (engineering design processes) and informal resources (funds of knowledge) is an important step toward encouraging Latino high school students to enter and remain in the field of engineering. This study investigates the funds of knowledge of fourteen Latino high school students and how they use their funds of knowledge to solve community-based engineering design problems. It is the intent of this study to generate a framework of funds of knowledge that teachers and instructors can draw from and create culturally responsive high school engineering instruction that connects students’ out-of-school practices to the formal practices of engineering.

Authors

• Joel Alejandro Mejia, Angelo State University

• Amy Alexandra Wilson, Utah State University