Moving Forward and Changing Mind-Sets: Implications of Culturally Responsive Engineering Education for Latinas/os

• In Event: Dismantling the Educational Pipeline: Structural Changes That Impact Latina/o Participation in Engineering

Abstract

The notion that underrepresented students possess motivational and cognitive deficits marginalizes students and promotes the model of meritocracy in educational structures (Valencia, 1997). The purpose of this study is to challenge the perception that Latin@s have motivational and cognitive deficits that prevent them from being successful in engineering by investigating how a group of Latin@ adolescents engage and solve engineering design problems. This study finds that Latinos have rich funds of knowledge that emerge from their social and cultural experiences. In addition, this study generates a framework of funds of knowledge that teachers and instructors can draw from to create culturally responsive high school engineering instruction that connects students’ out-of-school practices to the formal practices of engineering.

Author

• Joel Alejandro Mejia, Angelo State University