2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Latina students are entering institutions of higher education at greater rates than ever, yet they remain underrepresented in engineering and computing. Engineering and computing contexts may be particularly difficult to navigate due to their environments being entrenched in exclusionary, masculine, competitive, and identity-evasive practices (e.g. Secules, 2019; Rodriguez & Lehman, 2018).
This scholarly paper serves as a research to practice guide for translating elements of engineering and computing identity development for Latina students into holistic, actionable approaches for equitable outcomes. It is intended to generate discussion and engagement with a multi-prong approach to engineering and computing identity development among scholars and practitioners. The primary charge of this work is to share concrete strategies for how educational stakeholders can support engineering and computing identity development practices, policies, and collaborations for Latina students as they progress through their educational journeys.

The paper will explore identity development within and outside of the classroom by investigating the teaching and curriculum as well as advising and support changes needed to support Latina students in these fields. In addition, the paper will explore how college leaders can act as catalysts of change and community building to facilitate a multi-prong approach to enhancing engineering and computing identity development for Latina students. It will include a call to action to higher education practitioners for an integrated, assets-based approach to engineering and computing identity development that draws upon identity theory and research, community cultural wealth as well as funds of knowledge and identity. This call to action will be dually articulated around a distinctly Chicana Feminist (Anzaldúa, 1987; Anzaldúa & Moraga, 1981) approach to enhancing engineering and computing, including a recognition of the multiple borderlands of experience that Latina students may find themselves at during this identity development process.