2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This Empirical Research Work-in-Progress paper explores how K-12 educators influence the social capital of first-year engineering students. Social capital is defined as the access to and mobilization of resources through relationships and networks. Research has shown that social capital influences students’ academic and career paths, particularly in STEM fields. Previous studies in engineering education have highlighted the importance of social capital for student motivation and persistence, but most have focused on students’ experiences in middle and high school. Elementary school teachers, often students’ first academic mentors, have received little attention in this regard.

This study uniquely addresses the gap in the literature by examining how social capital varies across grade levels and the specific types of support that K-12 educators provide. Utilizing Lin’s Network Theory of Social Capital and building on the Name and Resource Generator (NRG) framework, a modified version of the Undergraduate Supports Survey (USS) collected quantitative data from first-year engineering students at Mississippi State University. The survey included a name generator, which prompted participants to list up to five individuals (alters) who influenced their decision to pursue engineering. For each named alter, participants identified which forms of expressive (e.g., emotional or motivational) and instrumental (e.g., academic or career-related) support the individual provided. The resource generator further allowed participants to select from a list of potential alter roles, including elementary, middle, and high school teachers, and indicate the specific resources each role provided. This structure enabled a detailed mapping of students’ social networks and revealed how embedded resources differed across grade levels.

The final analytic sample included 52 students. Preliminary findings show that educators were the most frequently named source of support in students’ social networks, particularly high school teachers, who often provided encouragement and academic guidance. While fewer students named elementary teachers, those who did described them as offering engaging, hands-on STEM activities such as building projects or robotics. However, these activities were rarely framed as “engineering,” indicating a disconnect between early classroom experiences and the professional identity of engineering. Students whose networks comprised 50% or more educators accessed more expressive and instrumental resources, suggesting that sustained educator involvement may increase students’ exposure to engineering-related support.

These findings emphasize the critical role that educators play across the K-12 continuum in shaping students’ early interest in engineering. Importantly, they also highlight a missed opportunity in elementary education: while teachers are beginning to introduce students to design- and problem-solving-based activities, they lack the language or resources to connect these experiences to engineering careers. This points to the need for further research to explore how low-barrier instructional shifts, such as using engineering terminology or describing classroom projects as “engineering challenges,” might support early identity formation in engineering without adding burdens to educators. These results contribute to ongoing efforts in engineering education to broaden participation, enhance early exposure, and create inclusive pathways by strategically leveraging students’ K-12 social capital.