2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This qualitative study presents an approach to engaging Mexican American youth in participatory design practices and speculative fiction by leveraging the synergy between Everyday Ingenuity (i.e., engineering) and Connected Learning Spaces. Latine and non-Latine youth in the United States are less likely to study engineering than Latine youth in Mexico and other Latin American countries, confirming systemic problems with the pedagogical practices in the United States that deter youth from initiating and completing degrees in engineering. Researchers, policy-makers, and educators need alternative methods to create inclusive, effective programs and curricula for minoritized populations to pursue engineering. This study presents how the cultural ingenuity in everyday practices, embodied in “make do” artifacts constructed with unconventional resources, can be leveraged in asset-based pedagogies such as Connected Learning to support a reimagining of engineering education. Study participants include Mexican American middle and high school age youth in Southern California, USA, together with Mexican American mentors and researchers. Prior findings from artifacts and interviews with youth and their families showed evidence of ingenuity mainly resulting from projects to repair objects, provide solutions in the home, and inspired by hobbies and interest-driven goals. Study participants became co-designers of a prototype for a workshop for future young people not considering engineering as a career. The goal was to use speculative fiction (e.g., latinofuturism ) to encourage interest while leveraging the already existing creativity, collaboration, and resourcefulness that comes when solving relevant and daily problems by engaging in everyday engineering. The combination of these factors can make engineering more relevant and more accessible to learners in minoritized populations.