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Abstract BackgroundLatinos/as/xs continue to face many barriers as they pursue engineering degrees, including remedial placement, lack of access to well‐funded schools, and high poverty rates. We use the concept ofarrebatosto describe the internal reckoning that Latino/a/x engineering students experience through their journeys, particularly focusing on the impact of socioeconomic inequalities. PurposeTo bring counternarratives in engineering education research focusing on the experiences and lived realities of low‐income Latino/a/x engineering students. These counternarratives are an important step in interrogating systemic biases and exclusionary cultures, practices, and policies at HSIs and emerging HSIs and within engineering programs. MethodsPláticaswere conducted with 22 Latino/a/x engineering undergraduates from four different universities in the US Southwest. Thesepláticaswere coded and analyzed drawing from Anzaldúa's theoretical concept ofel arrebato. Special attention was given to participants'arrebatostriggered by their college experiences as low‐income individuals. ResultsAnalysis indicates that Latino/a/x engineering students' arrebatosarise from events that shake up the foundation of their own identity, including an institutional lack of sociopolitical consciousness. This lack of consciousness becomes evident not only in individuals' attitudes toward these students but also in institutional policies that put them at a further disadvantage. ConclusionsFindings have implications for engineering programs, particularly at HSIs and emerging HSIs regarding the creation of policies and practices that aim to secure the retention of low‐income Latino/a/x engineering students and alleviate the systemic barrier they face by affirming the practice of servingness.
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This content will become publicly available on March 31, 2026
How Economically Marginalized Adolescents of Color Negotiate Critical Pedagogy in a Computing Classroom
Background and Context: With the growing movement to adopt critical framings of computing, scholars have worked to reframe computing education from the narrow development of programming skills to skills in identifying and resisting oppressive structures in computing. However, we have little guidance on how these framings may manifest in classroom practice. Objectives: To better understand the processes and practice of critical pedagogy in a computing classrooms, we taught a critically conscious computing elective within a summer academic program at a northwest United States university targeted at secondary students (ages 14–18) from low-income backgrounds and would be the first in their families to pursue a post-secondary education (i.e., first-generation). We investigated: (1) our participants’ initial perceptions of and attitudes toward the benefits and perils of computing, and (2) potential tensions that might emerge when secondary students negotiate the integration of critical pedagogy in a computing classroom. Methods: We qualitatively coded participant work from a critically conscious computing course within a summer academic program in the United States focused on students from low-income backgrounds or would be the first in their family to pursue a post-secondary education. Findings: Our participants’ initial attitudes toward technology were mostly positive, but exhibited an awareness of its negative impacts on their lives and society. Throughout the course, while participants demonstrated a rich social consciousness around technology, they faced challenges in addressing hegemonic values embedded in their programs, designs, and other classwork. Implications: Our findings revealed tensions between our participants’ computing attitudes, knowledge, self-efficacy, and social consciousness, suggesting pathways for scaffolding the critical examination of technology in secondary education. This study provides insights into the pedagogical content knowledge necessary for critical computing education.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2031265
- PAR ID:
- 10652183
- Publisher / Repository:
- ACM
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ACM Transactions on Computing Education
- Volume:
- 25
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1946-6226
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 29
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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