2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)
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Abstract

What are the lived experiences of Black children that foster Engineer of 2020 attributes? Using a framework, which includes Community Cultural Wealth theory and the Engineer of 2020 attributes, the lived experiences of 8 middle school children were explored. In effort to identify these experiences, we build precious work and explore the ways that Black children describe their informal engineering learning experiences. In this qualitative study, we will analyze eight interviews from Black and mixed- race middle school aged children from two different regions of the United States. Using narrative inquiry, the data will be explored to understand the stories children tell about their informal engineering learning experiences. We anticipate validating findings from previous work and shedding light on additional practices within the Black community that foster engineering attributes in middle school children. The anticipated contributions of this work are two-fold. Primarily, the findings of this work inform the interview protocol for a larger study investigating the ways the Engineer of 2020 attributes can be fostered in Black males through their precollege lived experiences. Additionally, this work can provide evidence for the diverse ways that Black children can learn engineering within their own communities. With this evidence, educators and engineering education researchers can establish stronger connections between students' lived experiences and the classroom and potentially increase interest in engineering careers and degrees among Black children.
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