STEM educators and other faculty and staff are invited to join the HSI Resource Hub March Webinar: on Friday, March 28, 2025, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Identifying as an engineer is essential for fostering belonging, persistence, and student success. Yet, this process is shaped by social context, including cultural norms that make it more difficult for some students than others to establish an identification as an engineer. When Latinx students enroll in engineering programs, they bring a wealth of historically accumulated cultural knowledge and distinct approaches to learning. These shared learning histories, collectively referred to as funds of knowledge, are accrued through everyday practices and lived experiences within their homes, communities, and work experiences. Latinx students’ funds of knowledge can also be considered resources that can help explain how they identify as engineers.
This research seminar presents empirical evidence of how Latinx students’ accumulated bodies of knowledge support their engineering identity development and persistence. The findings in this presentation offer a direction for engineering and STEM educators to integrate students’ funds of knowledge into the learning process, thus expanding the conventional boundaries of what counts as STEM-relevant knowledge. In doing so, STEM educators will help celebrate the value and application of students’ accumulated bodies of knowledge, thus cultivating a more inclusive learning environment.
