Nepantla aquí, Nepantla allá: The Borderlands of Identity from Mexican-Origin Women in STEM

Abstract

The study explored how Mexican-origin women in STEM utilized Anzaldua’s borderlands of identity and Conocimientos to successfully navigate between Mexican-origin cultures and STEM cultures. Students experienced life-changing events during their studies (el arrebato) and felt torn between STEM and Mexican-origin cultures ( Nepantla). However, students also sought to reimagine their futures ( Coyolxuahqui, the blow-up) and use their degrees to help their communities.

Creating a culture of servingness for Latinx engineering students in Hispanic‐serving community colleges

“…However, servingness, even within fiercely committed HSCCs, may not translate into inclusive engineering curricula, co-curricular activities to support retention, or transfer partnerships. In many cases, Latinx students at HSCCs may exist, at educational "borderlands," (Anzaldúa, 1987) in which the cultural values of their families and communities may come in stark contrast with that of their engineering programs (Camacho & Lord, 2013;Garza et al, 2023). Garcia et al (2019) define "servingness" through a multidimensional framework highlighting various indicators (e.g., academic/non-academic outcomes) and structures and external influences on servingness (e.g., curriculum, mission, legislation).…”

“…However, servingness, even within fiercely committed HSCCs, may not translate into inclusive engineering curricula, co‐curricular activities to support retention, or transfer partnerships. In many cases, Latinx students at HSCCs may exist, at educational “borderlands,” (Anzaldúa, 1987) in which the cultural values of their families and communities may come in stark contrast with that of their engineering programs (Camacho & Lord, 2013; Garza et al., 2023).…”

Nuestro Impacto: An Insider Look into the Connections between Our Past Experiences and Current Teaching and Mentoring Practices

“…CCW is a framework that is growing in popularity in education research and practice yet in the context of FDP in engineering, has only been discussed in rare occasions (Di Stefano et al, 2022;Garza, Rodriguez, & Espino, 2022;Mejia et al, 2022). Moreover, when considering marginalized groups like Latiné/x, we can't disconnect the clashes that many may experience either by their non-Monolithic identities (Revelo et al, 2017) or by the dissonances of the capitals they have acquired in lieu of their professional environments.…”

“…The conocimiento framework positions those who only live in-between worlds and who have the capacity to help others who are caught in-between worlds to create customized bridges for wholeness and agency. In engineering and STEM education, some researchers have drawn from some aspects of borderlands theory (Aguilar-Valdez et al, 2013;Gámez et al, 2021;Garza et al, 2022;Gutiérrez 2012Gutiérrez , 2013Gutiérrez , 2015Mejia et al, 2017;Mejia et al, 2022), as well as several studies in higher education (Acevedo-Gil, 2017;Conchas & Acevedo, 2020;Garcia & Mireles Rios, 2020;Gaxiola Serrano et al, 2019) to inform and establish counter-stories for liberation and praxis (Mejia et al, 2017).…”