Engineering Connections in a Native American Community and Culture

This Research Work in Progress investigates Native American perspectives regarding community and cultural connections to engineering. Effective problem-solving for issues the world is facing involves generating diverse solutions. These diverse solutions need to include Native American perspectives. Native Americans are among the most underrepresented minority (URM) population in STEM fields in the United States, and yet little is known about why so few Native Americans choose to pursue higher education and careers in STEM fields. Recognizing that community and culture help shape students’ academic and personal development, it is important to consider how community and culture regard and experience the field of engineering and the role(s) that engineering could play within the community. This study is a work in progress which will seek to answer the research question, how do Tohono O’odham community members perceive engineering in the context of their culture and community? In this article, I will present the framework, methods, procedures, data collection, and preliminary findings. Through the lens of social constructivism, this qualitative study will explore how Tohono O’odham community members experience the intersection of engineering and Tohono O’odham culture and community. Data for this research study will be based on the perspectives provided by three Tohono O’odham adults using semi-structured interviews. An iterative process of peer reviews, memoing, and coding will be used for interview transcript analysis. Utilizing In Vivo and Concept mixed methods coding, the data will be analyzed for any emergent themes and/or categories. Results from this research study could be used to inform culturally-relevant engineering lessons for schools that serve Tohono O’odham students and point to directions for further research.