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Title: Highlighting Community Cultural Wealth of Black Students Raised in the United States by Parents Born and Raised Abroad
The number of students with multicultural experiences are growing in the United States. We define multicultural experiences as the multiple cultures that students experience in their early life and through family, which differs from the culture at their higher education institution. Many students immigrate to the US with their families after spending formative years in other countries, which gives them unique perspectives on multiple cultures. Multicultural engineering students have a different understanding of engineering from those without such experiences. These experiences both provide these students with certain advantages in engineering and present challenges in their educational pursuits. Examining both advantages and challenges provides an opportunity to understand these students’ strengths and adaptation strategies. Engineering is a field that requires new thoughts, insights, and opinions to advance. Their meaningful life experiences (particularly their multicultural experiences) can bring new light to issues in engineering as well.
The study utilizes data from a larger mixed-methods study of Black students in engineering for in-depth interview transcripts, survey data, and an identity circle artifact. Two cases were purposefully selected for the current study – both participants were raised by African parents and had an additional international experience in a predominantly White country before studying engineering in the US. Both participants used this third point of reference to reflect on and give a rich description of their experience in the US. Through qualitative analysis of these cases, we will address the question: In what ways do Black students who are first- or second-generation immigrants from Africa and have studied abroad leverage community cultural wealth in engineering in the US?
We use Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) framework to highlight the strengths these students leverage in engineering. CCW is an asset-based framework developed to highlight the strengths of the students from Communities of Color. There are six assets used as a guiding lens to inform research in these communities: familial, social, aspirational, navigational, resistance, and linguistic capital that students bring from their familial and community background. This framework names and categorizes the numerous skills Students of Color have obtained through lived experiences and how the students are able to be successful in academia. Furthermore, students have the ability to utilize these capitals to their advantage in order to be successful beyond academia.
Exploring the CCW of Black immigrant students from African countries will give researchers a better understanding of the assets and strengths these students possess as well as the challenges they face. Through an examination of the CCW and various forms of capital for two Black immigrant students, we will emphasize the strengths of students with multicultural experiences in the hopes that they will be further valued and supported by university administrators. more »« less
Manning, Jessica; Brawner, Catherine E.; Sayster, Aimee; Mobley, Catherine; Orr, Marisa K.; Brent, Rebecca(
, American Society for Engineering Education)
Asset-based theories explain how people can apply their talents and skills to thrive in diverse environments. When applied to engineering education, these theories can highlight the unique strengths of students of color that help them succeed in college and beyond. An asset-based framework allows both students and instructors to see the potential in students in ways that were previously overlooked or unexplored.
This paper combines one asset-based framework and a powerful contextual theory to highlight the assets of Black students in engineering. First, Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) framework examines familial, linguistic, aspirational, resistant, navigational, and social capital. Second, Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (EST) describes the relationships that surround an individual as a set of systems that influence the individual in different ways. We combine the CCW and EST frameworks, to develop the C2WEST framework. This new framework can be used explore the experiences and strengths of Black students in engineering and the contexts that best describe those strengths. The various levels of influence included in EST will be used as a tool for describing the proximity of the assets to the individual as described by CCW. We present an illustrative example to demonstrate the power of combining these two frameworks.
We posit that synthesizing these frameworks provides researchers with unique opportunities to analyze interviews based on the type of capital and the impact the particular capital could have on the individual’s engineering journey. In addition to creating a unique way to analyze the experiences of Black engineering students, we anticipate the merged frameworks could be used to help students of Color realize the strengths they bring to the classroom. By identifying their assets, students could feel more empowered in engineering by recognizing the unique strengths they possess. We hope the tool will be used to help students realize their own strengths and for faculty and administrators to further realize how to support students.
High aspirations for the future function as powerful motivators for Black students to pursue and
persist in undergraduate engineering programs. Students gain mental strength by maintaining
high hopes and beliefs for the future. These aspirations can be intrinsic, originating as internal
motivators, or extrinsic, coming from various social circles, such as family and friends. Researchers can benefit from investigating the aspirations of Black students to develop more effective ways for faculty and administrators to support students’ dreams and goals.
Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) offers an asset-based framework that describes the strengths and knowledge of Communities of Color in terms of familial, linguistic, aspirational, resistant, navigational, and social capital that Students of Color bring to both the classroom and life. Pairing CCW with Ecological Systems Theory (EST) helps expand the understanding of the proximal and distal access students have to their various forms of capital. The different levels of EST – the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem – provide a framework for analyzing how students access the CCW capitals. We have combined these two frameworks to create C2WEST, an asset-based contextual theory that offers multiple lenses for viewing how and where in the EST framework individuals access their various types of capital.
Using the C2WEST framework, we highlight the different types of aspirational capital of Black students that originate in their microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. Aspirational capital is the ability for students to maintain high expectations despite obstacles. We used two case study illustrative examples obtained through interviews with Black students in undergraduate engineering to examine the development and enactment of aspirational capital in the different layers of C2WEST. Researchers thematically coded the interviews to familiarize themselves with the data and then chose quotes from the students that exemplified aspirational capital in the various levels.
The C2WEST framework will allow researchers to examine the aspirational capital of Black
engineering students and gain a better understanding of the goals of Black engineering students.This framework could allow administrators and engineering educators develop better methods of supporting the academic and personal goals of Black students. By understanding the aspirational capital of students at the different levels, engineering educators will be able to provide students with individually tailored support. Through C2WEST, Black students could also further realize and conceptualize the access they have to their own aspirations regarding future career and life goals.
There are significant disparities between the conferring of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) bachelor’s degrees to minoritized groups and the number of STEM faculty that represent minoritized groups at four-year predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Studies show that as of 2019, African American faculty at PWIs have increased by only 2.3% in the last 20 years. This study explores the ways in which this imbalance affects minoritized students in engineering majors. Our research objective is to describe the ways in which African American students navigate their way to success in an engineering program at a PWI where the minoritized faculty representation is less than 10%. In this study, we define success as completion of an undergraduate degree and matriculation into a Ph.D. program. Research shows that African American students struggle with feeling like the “outsider within” in graduate programs and that the engineering culture can permeate from undergraduate to graduate programs. We address our research objective by conducting interviews using navigational capital as our theoretical framework, which can be defined as resilience, academic invulnerability, and skills. These three concepts come together to denote the journey of an individual as they achieve success in an environment not created with them in mind. Navigational capital has been applied in education contexts to study minoritized groups, and specifically in engineering education to study the persistence of students of color. Research on navigational capital often focuses on how participants acquire resources from others. There is a limited focus on the experience of the student as the individual agent exercising their own navigational capital. Drawing from and adapting the framework of navigational capital, this study provides rich descriptions of the lived experiences of African American students in an engineering program at a PWI as they navigated their way to academic success in a system that was not designed with them in mind. This pilot study took place at a research-intensive, land grant PWI in the southeastern United States. We recruited two students who identify as African American and are in the first year of their Ph.D. program in an engineering major. Our interview protocol was adapted from a related study about student motivation, identity, and sense of belonging in engineering. After transcribing interviews with these participants, we began our qualitative analysis with a priori coding, drawing from the framework of navigational capital, to identify the experiences, connections, involvement, and resources the participants tapped into as they maneuvered their way to success in an undergraduate engineering program at a PWI. To identify other aspects of the participants’ experiences that were not reflected in that framework, we also used open coding. The results showed that the participants tapped into their navigational capital when they used experiences, connections, involvement, and resources to be resilient, academically invulnerable, and skillful. They learned from experiences (theirs or others’), capitalized on their connections, positioned themselves through involvement, and used their resources to achieve success in their engineering program. The participants identified their experiences, connections, and involvement. For example, one participant who came from a blended family (African American and White) drew from the experiences she had with her blended family. Her experiences helped her to understand the cultures of Black and White people. She was able to turn that into a skill to connect with others at her PWI. The point at which she took her familial experiences to use as a skill to maneuver her way to success at a PWI was an example of her navigational capital. Another participant capitalized on his connections to develop academic invulnerability. He was able to build his connections by making meaningful relationships with his classmates. He knew the importance of having reliable people to be there for him when he encountered a topic he did not understand. He cultivated an environment through relationships with classmates that set him up to achieve academic invulnerability in his classes. The participants spoke least about how they used their resources. The few mentions of resources were not distinct enough to make any substantial connection to the factors that denote navigational capital. The participants spoke explicitly about the PWI culture in their engineering department. From open coding, we identified the theme that participants did not expect to have role models in their major that looked like them and went into their undergraduate experience with the understanding that they will be the distinct minority in their classes. They did not make notable mention of how a lack of minority faculty affected their success. Upon acceptance, they took on the challenge of being a racial minority in exchange for a well-recognized degree they felt would have more value compared to engineering programs at other universities. They identified ways they maneuvered around their expectation that they would not have representative role models through their use of navigational capital. Integrating knowledge from the framework of navigational capital and its existing applications in engineering and education allows us the opportunity to learn from African American students that have succeeded in engineering programs with low minority faculty representation. The future directions of this work are to outline strategies that could enhance the path of minoritized engineering students towards success and to lay a foundation for understanding the use of navigational capital by minoritized students in engineering at PWIs. Students at PWIs can benefit from understanding their own navigational capital to help them identify ways to successfully navigate educational institutions. Students’ awareness of their capacity to maintain high levels of achievement, their connections to networks that facilitate navigation, and their ability to draw from experiences to enhance resilience provide them with the agency to unleash the invisible factors of their potential to be innovators in their collegiate and work environments.
The community cultural wealth (CCW) theoretical framework recognizes the assets of oppressed communities. Within the framework, aspirational capital refers to the hope to achieve in the face of systemic barriers, while navigational capital includes tactics engaged to progress within institutions that were not designed for equitable achievement. This study explores where aspirational capital and navigational capital overlap (a frequent and theoretically relevant occurrence) for marginalized‐identity (MI) STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) students.
Purpose
This study provides insight into the experiences of higher education for MI students. Understanding students' deployment of navigational and aspirational capitals can direct change within institutions.
Design/Method
This analysis draws on 51 semi‐structured interviews with 26 participants. Multiple rounds of qualitative coding and shared meaning‐making among authors support the present findings.
Results
When aspirational capital and navigational capital overlap in student experience, three themes emerge. First, MI students use individualized actions to meet their goals; their extreme self‐reliance and engagement of priorities and milestones are key. Second, intrinsic motivators echoing meritocratic narratives encourage students. These narratives emphasize the value of hard work and taking advantage of opportunities. Finally, external forces, including institutionally based experts and culture, reflect aspirational and navigational capital engagement that support the individual's approaches and mindsets. Each finding includes nuance based on demographic categories.
Conclusions
MI students draw on aspirational and navigational capital for support in postsecondary education. Recognition of CCW components and strategies shifts the responsibility of equitable student experiences and academic success to institutions and stakeholders in STEM higher education.
Rawhiya Jacob, Sharin; Montoya, Jonathan; Warschauer, Mark(
, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education)
Background: There has been a dearth of research on intersectional identities in STEM, including the fields of computing and engineering. In computing education research, much work has been done on broadening participation, but there has been little investigation into how the field of computer science (CS) presents opportunities for students with strong intersectional identities. This study explores the strengths and connections among the unique identities and the symbiotic relationships that elementary Latina students hold in CS identity attainment. Purpose: The aim of this article is to better understand how predominantly low-income, multilingual Latina students experience identity development through the lens of diverse group membership. We examine how young Latinas, through their participation in a yearlong culturally and linguistically responsive CS curriculum, leverage their intersecting identities to rewrite the formula of what a computer scientist is and can be, leaving space to include and invite other strong identities as well. Research Design: An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was used that analyzed data from predominantly low-income, multilingual Latinas in upper elementary grades, including pre- and post-CS identity surveys (N = 50) delivered before and after implementation of the curriculum, and eight individual semi-structured student interviews. Findings: We found that Latina students developed significantly stronger identification with the field of CS from the beginning to the end of the school year with regard to their experiences with CS, perception of themselves as computer scientists, family support for CS and school, and friend support for CS and school. Interviews revealed that perception of their CS ability greatly influenced identification with CS and that girls’ self-perceptions stemmed from their school, cultural, and home learning environments. Conclusion: Our results highlight the wealth of resources that Latinas bring to the classroom through their home- and community-based assets, which are characterized by intersecting group membership. Students did not report on the intersection between language and CS identity development, which warrants further investigation.
Sayster, Aimee, Manning, Jessica Allison, Brawner, Catherine E., Mobley, Catherine, Orr, Marisa K., and Brent, Rebecca. Highlighting Community Cultural Wealth of Black Students Raised in the United States by Parents Born and Raised Abroad. Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10478317. ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition .
Sayster, Aimee, Manning, Jessica Allison, Brawner, Catherine E., Mobley, Catherine, Orr, Marisa K., & Brent, Rebecca. Highlighting Community Cultural Wealth of Black Students Raised in the United States by Parents Born and Raised Abroad. ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, (). Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10478317.
Sayster, Aimee, Manning, Jessica Allison, Brawner, Catherine E., Mobley, Catherine, Orr, Marisa K., and Brent, Rebecca.
"Highlighting Community Cultural Wealth of Black Students Raised in the United States by Parents Born and Raised Abroad". ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition (). Country unknown/Code not available: American Society for Engineering Education. https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10478317.
@article{osti_10478317,
place = {Country unknown/Code not available},
title = {Highlighting Community Cultural Wealth of Black Students Raised in the United States by Parents Born and Raised Abroad},
url = {https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10478317},
abstractNote = {The number of students with multicultural experiences are growing in the United States. We define multicultural experiences as the multiple cultures that students experience in their early life and through family, which differs from the culture at their higher education institution. Many students immigrate to the US with their families after spending formative years in other countries, which gives them unique perspectives on multiple cultures. Multicultural engineering students have a different understanding of engineering from those without such experiences. These experiences both provide these students with certain advantages in engineering and present challenges in their educational pursuits. Examining both advantages and challenges provides an opportunity to understand these students’ strengths and adaptation strategies. Engineering is a field that requires new thoughts, insights, and opinions to advance. Their meaningful life experiences (particularly their multicultural experiences) can bring new light to issues in engineering as well. The study utilizes data from a larger mixed-methods study of Black students in engineering for in-depth interview transcripts, survey data, and an identity circle artifact. Two cases were purposefully selected for the current study – both participants were raised by African parents and had an additional international experience in a predominantly White country before studying engineering in the US. Both participants used this third point of reference to reflect on and give a rich description of their experience in the US. Through qualitative analysis of these cases, we will address the question: In what ways do Black students who are first- or second-generation immigrants from Africa and have studied abroad leverage community cultural wealth in engineering in the US? We use Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) framework to highlight the strengths these students leverage in engineering. CCW is an asset-based framework developed to highlight the strengths of the students from Communities of Color. There are six assets used as a guiding lens to inform research in these communities: familial, social, aspirational, navigational, resistance, and linguistic capital that students bring from their familial and community background. This framework names and categorizes the numerous skills Students of Color have obtained through lived experiences and how the students are able to be successful in academia. Furthermore, students have the ability to utilize these capitals to their advantage in order to be successful beyond academia. Exploring the CCW of Black immigrant students from African countries will give researchers a better understanding of the assets and strengths these students possess as well as the challenges they face. Through an examination of the CCW and various forms of capital for two Black immigrant students, we will emphasize the strengths of students with multicultural experiences in the hopes that they will be further valued and supported by university administrators.},
journal = {ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition},
publisher = {American Society for Engineering Education},
author = {Sayster, Aimee and Manning, Jessica Allison and Brawner, Catherine E. and Mobley, Catherine and Orr, Marisa K. and Brent, Rebecca},
}
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