2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Housing insecurity poses a significant, often overlooked challenge for approximately 34,000 youth in the USA, a figure likely underestimated due to the constant mobility of this population, which has been exacerbated by societal crises and systemic oppression, particularly among LGBTQIA+ youth (LY), who represent 20-40% of this population (Durso & Gates, 2012). Despite the vulnerabilities associated with housing insecurity, existing research rarely highlights the strengths and agency of LY experiencing housing insecurity (LYHI), especially in the context of their educational and career aspirations within fields like engineering.

For LGBTQIA+ learners, especially those experiencing housing insecurity, a strong sense of self is not merely a protective factor but a form of resistance and empowerment in spaces that seek to erase or marginalize their identities. As they enter engineering, a predominantly white male field, and culture (Secules, 2019), these youth encounter a duality: engineering can offer the potential for liberation through problem-solving, innovation, and community-building, but it also risks introducing systemic norms that threaten their authentic selves. The tension between engaging with engineering’s liberatory potential while navigating its cultural barriers can push and pull LYHI towards negotiating their identities, raising critical questions about whether assimilation into traditional engineering culture is necessary for success or whether engineering itself must evolve to embrace their diverse experiences.

This work-in-progress paper draws from a three-year Design-Based Research (DBR) initiative studying the Localized Engineering in Displacement (LED) curriculum, which integrates community-driven problem-solving with interactive digital environments and microelectronics. We specifically explore how LYHI negotiate their intersectional identities—spanning gender, race/ethnicity, academic, and professional realms—as they engage with this program. Partnering with a transitional living program for LGBTQIA+ youth in a Midwest city facing rising youth homelessness, we ensure that learners have agency in selecting community-relevant problems to address, positioning them not as recipients of education but as co-creators of knowledge and change. This investigation also maps onto their LGBTQ+ identities, as they navigate conflicts or dissonance between their authentic selves and the social expectations imposed upon them. We examine how they respond to these tensions, exploring the strategies they employ in asserting their identities while engaging in an engineering culture that often marginalizes or silences them.

Using Hatmaker’s (2013) concept of identity negotiation, we investigate whether and how learners navigate, perform, and prioritize their intersecting identities within the engineering space. Our methodology uses semi-structured interviews and student notebooks to trace the identities LYHI construct as part of their engineering education. Preliminary findings suggest that the LED program fosters deeper engagement, personal meaning, and agency, allowing LYHI to form supportive relationships and develop critical social awareness.

We anticipate our study to highlight the necessity of creating learning environments that not only recognize but actively celebrate the intersectional identities of LGBTQIA+ youth and youth facing housing insecurity. The potential of engineering to serve as a pathway to liberation must be predicated on the dismantling of oppressive norms, making space for all youth to engage with and shape the future of the field authentically.