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

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Supporting Underrepresented and LGBTQ Students

Tagged Division

Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

13

DOI

10.18260/1-2--42619

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/42619

Download Count

162

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Paper Authors

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Jessica Allison Manning Clemson University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-3506-9983

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Jessica Manning is a graduate student in the Department of Engineering and Science Education at Clemson University. She is also a Graduate Administrative Assistant for the Bioengineering Department and assists with advising students throughout their academic careers.

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Catherine E. Brawner Research Triangle Educational Consultants Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-8172-7599

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Catherine E. Brawner is President of Research Triangle Educational Consultants. She received her Ph.D.in Educational Research and Policy Analysis from NC State University in 1996. She also has an MBA from Indiana University (Bloomington) and a bachelor’

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Catherine Mobley Clemson University

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Catherine Mobley, Ph.D., is a Professor of Sociology at Clemson University. She has over 30 years experience in project and program evaluation and has worked for a variety of consulting firms, non-profit agencies, and government organizations, including t

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Marisa K. Orr Clemson University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-5944-5846

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Marisa K. Orr is an Associate Professor in Engineering and Science Education with a joint appointment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University.

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Rebecca Brent Education Designs, Inc Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-5390-1625

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Rebecca Brent is President of Education Designs, Inc., a consulting firm located in Chapel Hill, N.C. She is a certified program evaluator and a faculty development consultant. Brent received her B.A. from Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., her M.Ed. f

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Abstract

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.

Manning, J. A., & Brawner, C. E., & Mobley, C., & Orr, M. K., & Brent, R. (2023, June), An Exploration of Black Engineering Students’ Aspirational Capital within Community Cultural Wealth and Ecological Systems Theory Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42619

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2023 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015