Equitable Pre-College Engineering Education: Teaching with Racism in Mind

Abstract

Engineering educators must consider how the cultural backgrounds of students coincide (or diverge) with the epistemological and ontological formation of an engineer. Hence, this work is presented as an exhortation to engineering educators, particularly in a pre-college context, to critically evaluate how race-conscious pedagogies can be exerted in this field. In this autoethnographic study, I convey my attempt to teach engineering with explicit consideration of the sociopolitical context of the Black male youth I taught. As a Black male, I have an insider perspective into the realities that must be navigated to succeed in a racialized society, where Black males are a demographic that has been mercilessly underserved and over-criminalized in the educational system. I discovered three themes that describe my approach to actualizing culturally relevant pedagogy in pre-college engineering education, which are (i) exhibiting political clarity in curriculum design and implementation, (ii) using students’ lived experiences as authentic contexts for teaching engineering, and (iii) building relationships with students, their families, and community so that we know the students we are teaching.