A Narrative of the Community Cultural Wealth of a Black Male Engineering Undergraduate Student

Background: Black male students are present but underrepresented in undergraduate engineering programs. They currently make up 2.8% of engineering bachelor’s degree earners. Beyond the typical economic framing of underrepresentation in engineering, this lack of diversity is also an issue of social justice and equity that we must address.

Purpose: To address this challenge, we employed an assets-based approach to examine how Barry, a Black male engineering student, acquired and used his Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) to pursue his goal of earning an engineering degree.

Design/Methods: We conducted a single semi-structured interview with Barry. We used Yosso’s CCW framework to guide data analysis and retell Barry’s story using a narrative approach.

Results: We demonstrated that Barry acquired and used aspirational, familial linguistic, navigational, resistant, and social capital to achieve his goal of earning an engineering degree. We also illustrated the bidirectional and overlapping manifestations of his capital, which gave him the strength and motivation to persist.

Conclusions: Barry’s resources helped him become reflective about and enact his CCW. Findings illustrate how the narrative of a Black male engineering student further expands the utility of CCW. As universities seek ways to recruit, retain, and support Black males, assets-based frames provide a perspective to understand how their cultural assets support their educational goals and success and provide a perspective for designing support.