CAREER: Investigating the Engineering Expansive Learning Spaces for Boys of Color

University Of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville TN

Investigators

Abstract

This grant project investigates the ways in which African American males develop identities and competencies in engineering practices. Using a theoretical framework of practice-linked identities, the project also examines the complex relation between African American male students' engagement, learning, and identity formation in the context of three different engineering learning environments: elementary school, middle school, and undergraduate engineering. The project also involves developing case studies of students' engagement with engineering design practices within each context and comparing students' experiences across contexts. The findings are likely to influence how schools, especially educators, conceptualize Next Generation Science Standard practices, thus opening up these practices to more multifaceted ways of talking, thinking, and engaging and highlighting critical aspects of identity work in these settings. The merit of this project lies in the continued need for research that positively impacts the recruitment and retention of engineering students, particularly from underrepresented communities. By focusing on African American males, the project extends the understandings of the ways in which they may develop engineering practice competencies and identities. Further, the project is likely to contribute to the engineering education community's understanding of the development of engineering identities and the different features within learning environments that foster the formation and transformation of these identities. The key project objectives are the research and educational activities are the following:(a)examine and characterize the relationship between African American males' engineering practice competencies and identities; (b)examine and characterize elements within engineering learning environments that impact African American males' developing competencies and identities; and (c)develop hypotheses for the design of expansive engineering learning spaces for increasing African American males' competencies and identities. The project is unique in its approach to exploring the complex relationship between students' engineering engagement, learning, and identity formation to understand expansive learning ecologies in engineering for African American males. The strong emphasis on the design of equitable learning spaces within engineering education will provide additional insights that can more broadly impact the academic community.