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1. Queer cultural capital of LGBTQ+ undergraduate STEM students

   https://doi.org/10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2025053966  

   Bouchard, Travis; Bakka, Brandon; Borrego, Maura (January 2026, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering)

   We apply Yosso's community cultural wealth (CCW) and Pennell's queer cultural capital frameworks to the experiences of LGBTQ+ STEM students. We conducted interviews with nine LGBTQ+ undergraduate STEM majors and coded for the seven forms of wealth defined by Yosso and Pennell to determine if these are valuable frameworks for understanding the experiences of LGBTQ+ STEM students.The study found that students displayed most forms of capital in navigating their STEM environments,and research could expand and adapt CCW to fit the unique experiences of LGBTQ+ students. Linguistic,social, and navigational forms of capital emerged as the most important, but we also found examples of aspirational, resistant and transgressive capital. In particular, we substantially expand examples of linguistic capital beyond the findings of prior research, and some of the first examples of transgressive capital in STEM students are identified as such. 

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2. Community Cultural Wealth and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Identities as Motivators for Black Boys to Participate in a High School Academy of Engineering

   https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080873  

   Fletcher_Jr, Edward C; Carroll, Turhan K (August 2024, Education Sciences)

   Researchers have emphasized how the high school STEM-themed career academy model benefits ethnically and racially diverse learners by promoting positive STEM identities and raising the interest of students to pursue STEM college and career pathways. The purpose of this study was to examine the reasons why Black boys participated in a high school academy of engineering. We were also interested in identifying academy features that helped promote (or inhibit) positive STEM identities among Black male students. In this qualitative study, we used data from 17 Black male high school academy of engineering students. We analyzed the interview transcripts using a constant comparative method. Using an embedded case study approach, we compared our findings to the community cultural wealth (CCW) factors and the factors that researchers have found to influence students’ STEM identities. We found that the participants brought six forms of capital with them that served as sources of motivation to participate in the program. The forms of capital that were related to the CCW framework included aspirational, familial, navigational, resistance, and social. While we did not uncover linguistic capital in our data analysis, we did find an additional source of capital that was not reflected in the CCW framework. We found that the Black boys had natural STEM talent based on the formation of STEM identities. The students had high aptitudes in STEM-related subjects, and they were engaged by participating in hands-on activities. We recommend that schools integrate STEM curricula for Black boys and provide Black men to serve as STEM role models through guest speaking opportunities, job shadowing, mentoring, internships, and other work-based learning experiences. 

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3. An Exploration of Black Engineering Students' Aspirational Capital within Community Cultural Wealth and Ecological Systems Theory

   Manning, Jessica; Brawner, Catherine E; Mobley, Catherine; Orr, Marisa K; Brent, Rebecca (June 2023, Conference Proceedings of the 2023 ASEE Annual Conference)

   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. 

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4. MOTIVES AND TACTICS: REPRESENTATIONS OF ASPIRATIONAL CAPITAL AMONG MARGINALIZED-IDENTITY STEM STUDENTS

   https://doi.org/10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2024046657  

   Sausner, Erica B; Pitarresi, James M (January 2025, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering)

   While engaging supports offered through a scholarship program, marginalized-identity STEM students draw on community cultural wealth to persist in an environment that is not designed for their success. This analysis focuses on the presence of aspirational capital: hope and goals that prevail despite systemic barriers for marginalized-identity individuals and communities. Semi-structured interview data from 31 students, through the engagement of basic qualitative methodology, reveal students' ongoing search and adaptation for institutional opportunities, engagement of individualistic tactics including keen self-awareness and narratives of hard work to meet established goals, relationships to trusted guides, and community-serving orientations as representations of their aspirational capital. 

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5. Introducing the C2West Framework for Analyzing Assets of Black Undergraduate Students in Engineering

   Manning, Jessica; Brawner, Catherine E.; Sayster, Aimee; Mobley, Catherine; Orr, Marisa K.; Brent, Rebecca (February 2023, 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. 

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