Mitigating Rural Flight: The Role of a Place-based Engineering Curriculum in Strengthening Community Assets (Traditional Research Paper)

Micaha Dean Hughes; Aaron Arenas; Latricia Walker Townsend; Tameshia Ballard Baldwin

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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: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: Engineering Empowered Communities: Place-Based Community Engaged Learning
Tagged Division: Community Engagement Division (COMMENG)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/47780

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Paper Authors

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Micaha Dean Hughes North Carolina State University

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Micaha Dean Hughes is a doctoral student in the Educational Psychology program (Teacher Education and Learning Sciences) at North Carolina State University. Her research centers the role of mattering in promoting healthy, safe, and productive teaching and learning environments.

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Aaron Arenas North Carolina State University

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Latricia Walker Townsend North Carolina State University

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Dr. LaTricia Townsend is a Senior Research Scholar on the Research and Evaluation Team at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University. She has over 20 years of experience in the field of education. Her current work

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Tameshia Ballard Baldwin North Carolina State University

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Dr. Tameshia Ballard Baldwin is a Teaching Assistant Professor working jointly in the College of Engineering and in the Department of STEM Education within the College of Education at North Carolina State University. She earned a B.S. in Biological Engine

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Abstract

Education research in rural communities often delivers a deficit perspective on professional opportunities for teachers and students, regularly underscoring the challenges of recruiting and retaining a college-educated workforce in rural spaces. Recent literature in rural education urges the cultivation of a positive outlook: recognition of what existing community assets can provide to rural residents in order to combat “rural outmigration.” In this paper, we discuss curricular development and participant perceptions during an asset-focused, community-based engineering design program, “DeSIRE” (Developing STEM Identity through Research and Exploration). As a National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) project, DeSIRE is a school-university-community collaboration (SUCC) with goals to broaden participation in engineering and strengthen the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) identity of minoritized middle school students and teachers in a rural southeastern state. Operating in two middle schools since 2020, DeSIRE features a formal, three-part manufacturing engineering curriculum that was designed around the commodities of local industry partners in the areas of biopharmaceuticals, food process engineering, and energy systems. Through collaboration with companies including Pfizer, Cummins, Kaba Ilco Corporation, LS Cable & System, Hitachi, and Poppies International, students were exposed to project-based content grounded in local STEM career opportunities that would enable them to pursue fulfilling careers within the community they are from.

Using a Rural Cultural Wealth framework, we provide a lens on how curricular development and implementation of the DeSIRE course highlights rural ingenuity and resourcefulness in order to address the community’s need to bolster the engineering workforce. Further, using qualitative data analysis of student focus groups and teacher interviews, we present multilevel findings of how the program has supported and strengthened the way students and teachers think about opportunities in their rural space. This paper serves as an informational tool for K-12 schools, universities, and engineering industry and community partners toward the development of new partnerships, as well as a hopeful demonstration of how SUCCs can shift the mindset of participants to potentially reduce rural flight.

Citation
Format

Dean Hughes, M., & Arenas, A., & Townsend, L. W., & Baldwin, T. B. (2024, June), Mitigating Rural Flight: The Role of a Place-based Engineering Curriculum in Strengthening Community Assets (Traditional Research Paper) Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47780

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Education research in rural communities often delivers a deficit perspective on professional opportunities for teachers and students, regularly underscoring the challenges of recruiting and retaining a college-educated workforce in rural spaces. Recent literature in rural education urges the cultivation of a positive outlook: recognition of what existing community assets can provide to rural residents in order to combat “rural outmigration.” In this paper, we discuss curricular development and participant perceptions during an asset-focused, community-based engineering design program, “DeSIRE” (Developing STEM Identity through Research and Exploration). As a National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) project, DeSIRE is a school-university-community collaboration (SUCC) with goals to broaden participation in engineering and strengthen the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) identity of minoritized middle school students and teachers in a rural southeastern state. Operating in two middle schools since 2020, DeSIRE features a formal, three-part manufacturing engineering curriculum that was designed around the commodities of local industry partners in the areas of biopharmaceuticals, food process engineering, and energy systems. Through collaboration with companies including Pfizer, Cummins, Kaba Ilco Corporation, LS Cable &amp;amp; System, Hitachi, and Poppies International, students were exposed to project-based content grounded in local STEM career opportunities that would enable them to pursue fulfilling careers within the community they are from. 

Using a Rural Cultural Wealth framework, we provide a lens on how curricular development and implementation of the DeSIRE course highlights rural ingenuity and resourcefulness in order to address the community’s need to bolster the engineering workforce. Further, using qualitative data analysis of student focus groups and teacher interviews, we present multilevel findings of how the program has supported and strengthened the way students and teachers think about opportunities in their rural space. This paper serves as an informational tool for K-12 schools, universities, and engineering industry and community partners toward the development of new partnerships, as well as a hopeful demonstration of how SUCCs can shift the mindset of participants to potentially reduce rural flight. 

AU  - Micaha Dean Hughes
AU  - Aaron Arenas
AU  - Latricia Walker Townsend
AU  - Tameshia Ballard Baldwin
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Mitigating Rural Flight: The Role of a Place-based Engineering Curriculum in Strengthening Community Assets (Traditional Research Paper)
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/47780
ER  -