Montoya, J L (2023) Promoting equitable pathways in engineering and career technical education. PhD thesis, University of California, Irvine, USA.
Abstract
My dissertation addresses three studies which ask broadly: What are the predictive metrics of functioning AS-CTE pathways? Can students’ perceptions of these pathways be changed? Are these pathways equitable for female students?In my first study, I take a step toward better understanding the metrics that explain functioning AS-CTE pathways. Through ethnography, I observed that when social mobility was added as a metric of high-quality PBL with AS-CTE in a predictive framework of education success, attendance levels improved.In my second study, I investigated an opportunity gap (Ladson-Billings, 2013) contributing to students’ perceptions that AS-CTE does not lead to advanced STEM degrees. That perception forms a resistance to AS-CTE pathways, hindering efforts to include underrepresented demographics such as women. This study aims to explain to what degree the opportunity gap influences perceptions of obscure high-wage, high-skill careers by youth of an underrepresented demographic.In my final study, I investigated how AS-CTE pathways present barriers to inclusion through hegemonic masculinity (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005). Building on the work of (Tarantino et al., 2016), this study employs a feminization of PBL mentor intervention to help break down the barriers of hegemonic masculinity in secondary STEM-CTE classrooms. Through ethnographic action research (Hartmann et al., 2009), I found evidence that the humanizing of our VDC-PBL intervention allowed for sites of resistance to gender norms.These studies make three important and timely contributions to the field of AS-CTE and engineering education more broadly. First, I uncover and remediate an ineffective metric of program efficacy, then reveal an opportunity gap which impacts marginalized youth more acutely, and finally I reveal a toxic masculinity within AS-CTE pathways which further impacts those with compounding marginalizations. While uncovering these trends, I offer recommendations to remediate these issues, while also highlighting what is working for these pathways.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Warschauer, M |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | education; gender; women; careers; action research; ethnography |
| Index terms: | women, dissertation, demographics, mobility, engineering education, ethnography, evidence, career, classroom, program, norms, action research, masculinity |
| Subjects: | software systems, qualitative and interpretive research, professional development, sociology, infrastructure and transport systems, data collection methods, demography, professional education, construction type, research dissemination and communication, evaluation and assessment methods |
| Topics: | Digital Applications, Urban Studies, Information Management, Research Practice, Construction Technology, Education |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here