Community values: Exploring what undergraduate engineering students value in their community college experience

Abstract

AbstractPrevious research exploring the lived experiences of marginalized groups of students in STEM at community college settings is limited, despite the fact that community colleges have the potential to create pathways to 4‐year engineering degrees and diversify the STEM workforce. This study explored what underrepresented students in STEM valued most as they navigated community college. We conducted nineteen semi‐structured narrative interviews. Our findings suggested that the students found some of the values implicit compared to other explicit values mentioned by the participants. For example, they valued intimate class size, invested faculty, available tutors, and financial support as explicit values. They appreciated the low‐pressure environment, directional support, networking opportunities, and hands‐on learning as implicit values associated with their college experience. Our research has a direct implication on how such experiences influence students’ chosen pathways toward engineering careers, and institutions can learn directly to establish programs with an understanding of what they value.