Building Bridges to STEM Pathways: Harnessing Community Cultural Wealth

• In Event: P12 Persistence in Response to Just Education Resistance: Practitioner Scholarship as a Revolutionary Act

Abstract

This phenomenological study utilizes Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005) to identify and understand the factors that influence alumni from a STEM-focused charter school to pursue careers in STEM fields. By employing an asset-based theoretical framework, this study centers underrepresented voices in STEM education, aiming to uncover the elements that contribute to their decision to follow a STEM career path. Despite the clear benefits of STEM careers, there is a significant gap in understanding the factors that influence students’ decisions to pursue STEM education, particularly among underrepresented minorities. Using the five tenets that form CRT and by centering students’ cultural capital in this study, student’s perspectives and their counter-stories are framed as empowering and asset-based to other students to be able to see themselves as a way to resist oppressive systems. This study will hold significant scholarly value as it addresses the critical issue of underrepresentation in STEM fields by focusing on the experiences and successes of alumni from a STEM focused charter school.

Author

• Analisse Nava, University of Colorado - Denver