Becoming an Engineer: Influences Shaping the Engineering Identities of Latinx Undergraduates on the U.S.-Mexico Border

• In Event: 43.078 - MTCC Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 43.078-10 - Latinxs and STEM

Abstract

As part of a three-year ethnographic study of Latinx engineering students’ career trajectories, this paper employs a sociocultural approach to understanding the constellation of influences that shape Latinx students’ pathways into Engineering/Computer Science, with a focus on students’ own discursive accounts of their experiences. The central questions guiding this inquiry include: How do Mexican and Mexican-origin engineering students describe their pathways to engineering? What are the key influences shaping their engineering identities? Our analysis of in-depth interviews with 19 upper-level Engineering/Computer Science (E/CS) students uncovered four sets of recurrent discourses in students’ accounts of their pathways to engineering: (1) Social mobility and status; (2) Childhood participation in engineering-like activities; (3) Key influence of faculty/mentors; and (4) Critical influence of family.

Authors

• Erika L. Mein, The University of Texas - El Paso

• Helena Mucino-Guerra, University of Texas - El Paso