Marietta, Georgia
March 10, 2024
March 10, 2024
March 12, 2024
Diversity
12
10.18260/1-2--45512
https://peer.asee.org/45512
118
Doctoral candidate with the Engineering and Science Education Department at Clemson University researching computer science education.
Randi is a current Ph.D. student in the department of Engineering and Science Education at Clemson University. Her research interests center around undergraduate research experiences using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Her career goals are to work as an evaluator or consultant on educationally based research projects with an emphasis on statistical analyses and big data.
Jessica Fallon 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.
Asset-based frameworks are used to describe the strengths that individuals bring to new situations, including graduate students joining a department. Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) was created with Communities of Color in mind to highlight the multitude of assets students of color possess. CCW uses familial, linguistic, aspirational, resistant, navigational, and social capital to describe students’ strengths in and out of the classroom. These capitals appear in multiple settings and from many different sources. They also can be depicted simultaneously as a single capital cannot describe some strengths.
The Engineering and Science Education (ESED) department at Clemson University created a space named “Lunch and Learn” (“L&L”), where students mutually support and grow their educational assets alongside their peers and mentors. We use a descriptive case study to investigate the experiences of graduate students within Lunch and Learn. The research team conducted semi-structured interviews to investigate graduate students’ experiences in L&L. Finally, we use open and axial coding to analyze and describe the themes demonstrating community cultural wealth capitals.
Results demonstrate that graduate students’ aspirational, linguistic, navigational, and social capital are augmented by Lunch and Learn. Students interact with peers at various program levels, allowing younger students to glean additional knowledge, skills, and interests from older students. This interaction assists novice graduate students in persisting in their studies by reinforcing their aspirational capital. Advice and knowledge from experienced students in the program also add to novice students’ navigational capital as experienced students provide perspectives about different educational pathways and career options during the program. Explicit and implicit messaging helps students feel connected and supported by other graduate students in the department, allowing a continued enactment of their social capital.
Ransom, T., & Sims, R., & Manning, J. A. (2024, March), Community Cultural Wealth from an Engineering and Science Education Department Paper presented at 2024 South East Section Meeting, Marietta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--45512
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