Heteronormative Ideologies in the Construction of Latinx Engineering Identities

• In Event: Using an Identity Lens to Explore Latinx Undergraduate Pathways Into and Through STEM

Abstract

Although interest and graduation of Latinx in engineering remain comparatively low, Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) contribute significantly to the workforce. Border University (BU), a US-Mexico border institution where this study is set, is noteworthy in that Latinx may feel “at home” (80% Latinx enrollment, Latinx faculty and staff).

Engineering identities are developed in part through collaborative teamwork activity. Though it is an essential engineering professional skill, women’s experiences in teamwork potentially “recreate sexist environments” (Amelink & Creamer, 2010, p. 82), with significant long-term impacts, i.e., leaving engineering. Engineering is the lowest-ranked discipline on gender parity and LGBTQ openness indicators (Yoder & Matteis, 2015), and women experience “a form of womanhood based on normative heterosexual subordination” (Tonso, 2006, p. 293). By recounting experiences of Latinas and LGBTQ students in mechanical engineering (ME) at BU, our purpose is to show how heteronormative masculine identities are privileged in ME.

We draw on sociocultural theory to understand identity construction in social practice. Through human networked activity identities are (re)constructed around shared affinities (Gee, 2001). Sociocultural worlds function as contexts of meaning which distribute and sort participants in relation to others (Urrieta, 2007), privileging only certain ways of being and interacting (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998). Appearance, internships, grades and skills signal in-group membership. Complementarily, we draw on literature on Latino masculinity construction in college (Rodriguez, 2018), to understand how markers of heteronormative identities function to construct status and belonging, including the value of familismo.

As part of this ethnographic study we followed three senior ME teams. We collected fieldnotes from participant observation (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1995; Willis & Trondman, 2000) teamwork activity, and ethnographic interviews (Seidman, 2006).

Our findings reveal teams socialized through shared language (“Spanglish”) and joking to build belonging. In other ways, masculine ideals prevailed. The use of machinery was very meaningful, with an implicit assumption about family experience with machinery. Samantha’s inexperience with cutting tools led her team to reject her when she could not finish a task that required its use. Good test grades also attained unique meaning. Alicia’s intelligence and honesty were demeaned by her Latino male peers. Genesis remarked on the appropriate clothing in ME spaces, alluding to the danger of sexual harassment. In one case, women were blocked from participating in technical, engineering-related design work and assigned graphic design. In informal conversation, the value of familismo emerged as participants narrated stories of choosing engineering in order to be good providers, thereby reproducing male privilege in families. Heterosexual males alluded to family structures through frequent mention of marriage and children. In contrast, Alfonso, a gay man, remained silent (and closeted) in those conversations rather than alluding to the impossibility of fulfilling heteronormative expectations. All graduates named above left ME.

Given the low numbers of degrees awarded to Latinx students, this ethnographic of Latinx engineering students at an HSI is the first of its kind, to our knowledge. It suggests reasons Latinx graduates might persist (or not) in ME.

Authors

• Alberto Esquinca, San Diego State University

• Joel Alejandro Mejia, The University of Texas - San Antonio