Exploring Non-Normative Forms of Capital, Wealth and Knowledge Used by Engineering Students

当今工程高等教育的文化受到其历史和社会学根源的影响，因为它是一个以男性为主的中上层阶级专业。因此，人们常常假设只有一种“正常”的学生体验。然而，来自代表性不足或社会边缘化群体的学生往往有与主流工程文化不同的教育经历。一般来说，工程课程和个别课程的设计和教学通常以传统的方式进行，没有考虑到不同的学生给他们的工程研究带来的许多优势。当前的教育体系并没有很容易地认识到并利用这些经验来产生新的教学和学习工程的方法，或者发展不同的方式来思考工程师如何为当今多样化的社会创造过程和产品。该项目通过阐明来自社会边缘群体的学生的独特经历，有助于使工程领域多样化。该项目的目标是帮助教育工作者认识和重视各种不同的经验，使工程领域更具包容性。这个项目的目的是回答一个研究问题：“在代表性不足和/或社会边缘化的学生的不同经历中，哪些形式的资本、财富和知识被认为是重要的？”采用证明访谈法，研究人员定性地调查了近期工程专业毕业生“不劳而获的优势”和“不劳而获的劣势”的经历，以及这些不劳而获的特征与工程高等教育的关系。定性研究方法允许收集参与者经验的丰富描述，以发现工程文化规范的差异是否/如何导致帮助学生坚持和成功的成功模式。现象数据分析和基于资产的理论框架，包括社区文化财富（CCW）和知识基金（FoK），用于发现参与者体验工程教育方式的变化。通过利用咨询小组的专业知识，该项目开发了能力和研究基础设施，以开发可扩展的机制，从而促进工程教育工作者之间“非传统”或“意想不到”的财富形式的验证。

Uncovering the Assets that Diverse Students Bring to Engineering Higher Education The culture of today's engineering higher education has been influenced by its historical and sociological roots as a dominantly male, middle-to-upper class profession. As a result, there is often the assumption that there is a single "normal" student experience. However, students from underrepresented or socially marginalized groups often have educational experiences that that are distinct from the mainstream engineering culture. Generally speaking, engineering curricula and individual courses are designed and often taught in traditional ways that do not take into account the many assets that diverse students bring to their engineering studies. The current system of education does not readily recognize and leverage these experiences in producing new ways of teaching and learning engineering or developing different ways of thinking about how engineers create processes and products for today's diverse society. This project contributes to diversifying the field of engineering by illuminating the distinct experiences of students from socially marginalized groups. The project's goal is to help educators recognize and value a variety of distinct experiences, making the field of engineering more inclusive. The objective of this project is to answer the research question: "In the varying experiences of students who are underrepresented and/or socially marginalized, what forms of capital, wealth, and knowledge are identified as significant?" Using a testimonial interview method, the researchers qualitatively investigate recent engineering graduates' experiences of "unearned advantages" and "unearned disadvantages," and the relationship of these unearned traits to engineering higher education. The qualitative research approach allows the collection of rich descriptions of participants' experiences to discover if/how differences from the engineering cultural norm may result in models of success that help students persist and succeed. Phenomenographic data analysis and asset-based theoretical frameworks including Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) and Funds of Knowledge (FoK) are used to discover variations in the way that participants experience their engineering education. Through leveraging the expertise of an advisory panel, the project develops the capacity and research infrastructure to develop scaleable mechanisms that can facilitate validation of "non-traditional" or "unexpected" forms of wealth among engineering educators.