CAREER: Breaking the Tradition of Silence through Conocimiento and Consciousness Raising among Latinx Engineers

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Latinx underrepresentation in engineering is a topic that has been widely discussed in engineering education circles for many years. Although the Latinx population continues to grow and more Latinx are attending college, the degree attainment for this population in engineering continues to be low. Different scholars have argued that Latinx students do not pursue engineering careers because the cultures of students do not fit the “cultures of engineering.” The narrow conceptualization of who belongs in engineering has failed to recognize and acknowledge the material realities and lived experiences of Latinx students and their contribution to knowledge construction in engineering. Oftentimes, the conocimiento and testimonio of Latinx students is perceived as a deficit rather than an asset that belongs in engineering. While there is a broad range of research that addresses Latinx students in engineering, the current approaches are devoid of the insider perspectives and methodologies needed to (re)frame and (re)define the ways of doing research about and with Latinx from an asset-based perspective. Without understanding the language, culture, practices, or belief systems of Latinx students, researchers in the past have come to deficit views of Latinx and other marginalized student groups’ thinking and academic work. To counter these deficit views, it is necessary to validate the everyday life experiences of Latinx engineering students and recognize them as holders and creators of knowledge. This study seeks to provide a pathway for the development of more culturally responsive educators and researchers that attend to the lived experiences of Latinx engineering students. The goal is to provide more information on how to support marginalized engineering students by designing a framework that supports learning through transformation while acknowledging conocimiento and testimonio as forms of knowledge generation in engineering. This work contributes to the growing body of knowledge related to student-centered initiatives, the diversification of the engineering field, and the identification of institutional practices that may perpetuate or alleviate the adversity faced and perceived by Latinx students in engineering. This three-phase multi-sited ethnographic study seeks to (1) explore the concept of conocimiento as Latinxs make sense of adverse experiences in engineering, (2) identify and analyze the structural barriers and modes of exclusionary discourse in engineering, and (3) develop a model that integrates Latinx epistemologies and methodologies to expand asset-based and culturally responsive approaches to engineering education research and teaching. Phase 1 of the study focuses on the collection and analysis of the testimonios of Latinx engineering students to unravel traditional academic ideas of who may be considered a producer of knowledge. This analysis addresses how Latinx engineering students negotiate and make meaning of their lived experiences as they go through their engineering journey while documenting their conocimiento. Phase 2 consists of an analysis of institutional norms and how these are communicated and (re)produced to identify the different forms in which institutional practices may perpetuate or alleviate the adversity faced and perceived by Latinx engineering students. Finally, Phase 3 involves the development of methodologies that contribute to the (re)framing of asset-based approaches to engineering education research and teaching. This study provides methodological approaches written by and for Latinxs to theorize and analyze systemic barriers, resistance, persistence, and agency as a way to foster a culture of inclusivity in engineering education, and broaden the participation and academic attainment of Latinx engineering students. The testimonios, conocimiento, and methodologies emerging from this study support advocacy work for Latinx engineering students across the nation, and help dismantle the myth of the Latinx monolith to prevent reproducing the narrative that Latinxs have fixed social configurations, which interferes with the effectiveness of initiatives to increase the number of Latinxs in engineering.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.