Abstract
The purpose of this study was to critically examine the perceptions that African-American high school students have towards engineering. A qualitative research design using criterion sampling and snowballing was used to select seven African-American students from urban high schools to participate in the research. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from participants attending urban high schools on the east and west coast. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as the theoretical framework, the study was able to produce “emergent themes” from collected data. Findings from this study will help researchers understand how African-American students may perceive the field of engineering.
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Notes
The efforts of this study were funded by the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE). NCETE is a collaborative network of scholars with backgrounds in technology education, engineering, and related fields. Developed in 2004 as a vehicle to drive the infusion of engineering design content into K-12 technology education curriculums, NCETE is one of 17 Centers for Learning and Teaching (CLT) funded by the National Science Foundation. The “ultimate” goal of NCETE is to infuse engineering design, problem solving and analytical skills into K-12 schools through technology education programs in order to increase the quality, quantity and diversity of engineering and technology educators (www.ncete.org).
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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0426421. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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Denson, C.D., Avery, Z.K. & Schell, J.W. Critical Inquiry into Urban African-American Students’ Perceptions of Engineering. J Afr Am St 14, 61–74 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-009-9107-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-009-9107-4