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Borderlands First-Generation-in-Engineering Experiences-Learning with and about Students at the Nexus of Nation, Discipline, and Higher Education

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

June 26, 2024

Conference Session

Innovating Inclusivity: Rethinking Access and Empowerment in STEM Education

Tagged Divisions

Equity and Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

9

DOI

10.18260/1-2--48402

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/48402

Download Count

60

Paper Authors

biography

Sarah Hug Colorado Evaluation and Research Consulting

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Dr. Sarah Hug is director of the Colorado Evaluation & Research Consulting. Dr. Hug earned her PhD in Educational Psychology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research and evaluation efforts focus on learning science, technology, engineering. She leads a social science and evaluation organization that focuses on inclusive excellence, broadening participation, and democratizing science.

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Raena Cota New Mexico State University

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Ruth Constansa Torres Castillo New Mexico State University

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Enrico Pontelli New Mexico State University

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Adan Maximiliano Delval New Mexico State University

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Abstract

Educational contexts are complex in the ways they support and fail to support student success in engineering. In border communities of the southwest, where rural communities blend across national and state boundaries, student counternarratives of educational success involve complexity. In particular, engineering students’ descriptions of language, familial backgrounds, disciplinary knowledge, hidden curriculum of US post-secondary systems, and financial services built for citizens OR international students indicate there is much to be learned about how institutions in border communities support or fail to support equitable access to engineering pathways. In a larger study, transcript analysis of 40 interviews from undergraduates at a border institution indicate scholars navigate familial and background difference across educational levels (i.e., first generation status), educational systems (e.g., educational background in Mexico compared with educational background in the United States), disciplinary differences (e.g., rigors of engineering in terms of time commitment compared with other majors). In this exploratory, work in progress study, we aim to illustrate how scholars who participate in a National Science Foundation-funded scholarship program navigate learning at the nexus of nation, discipline, and higher education systems. We developed brief counternarratives, or stories that tell truths from non-dominant perspectives about how students navigate academic pathways in the computer science department. The authors identify how the counternarratives point toward needed policy and practice change in the department and hope to gain feedback from the EQUITY community regarding our efforts and next steps at Praxis, sharing these counternarratives in departmental spaces to draw out faculty, staff, and student dialog toward change.

Hug, S., & Cota, R., & Torres Castillo, R. C., & Pontelli, E., & Delval, A. M. (2024, June), Borderlands First-Generation-in-Engineering Experiences-Learning with and about Students at the Nexus of Nation, Discipline, and Higher Education Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--48402

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