Recognizing the funds of knowledge of first‐generation college students in engineering: An instrument development

Abstract

Background Students who are the first in their families to attend college are an integral part of undergraduate engineering programs. Growing bodies of research argue that educators could better support these students if they understood the unique backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge they bring with them to higher education. Purpose/Hypothesis The purpose of this article is twofold. First, we identify salient funds of knowledge used by a group of first‐generation college students in their educational and work‐related experiences. Secondly, we use the funds of knowledge identified in our participants' experiences to create a survey instrument. Design/Method A mixed methods approach was used. Ethnographic interview data of six first‐generation college students were used to hypothesize constructs and create survey items. Survey data were collected from 812 students. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to verify the underlying theoretical structures among the survey items and hypothesized constructs. Results Validity evidence supported a 10‐factor model as opposed to the hypothesized 6‐factor model. The 10 latent constructs that make up the funds of knowledge instrument are as follows: tinkering knowledge from home, tinkering knowledge from work, connecting experiences, networks from family members, networks from college friends, networks from coworkers, networks from neighborhood friends, perspective taking, reading people, and mediating ability. Conclusions Recognizing first‐generation college students' funds of knowledge is a first step to creating curricular spaces and experiences that better serve them. A survey scale allows educators to empirically examine how these accumulated bodies of knowledge are transmitted to capital, create advantages in engineering, and provides a useful tool to bridge students' knowledge in the classroom.

A funds of knowledge approach to developing engineering students' design problem framing skills

“…Similarly, Smith and Lucena (2016) found that low‐income, first‐generation college students' experiences related to building, fixing, gardening, cooking, and working in low‐paying jobs provided foundational skills that were valued in engineering internships. Their later work identified social skills, like reading people, and design skills, like perspective‐taking (Verdín et al, 2021). Mobley and Brawner (2019) reported that parents' blue‐collar work experiences provided first‐generation community college transfer students with motivations to go further than their parents, as well as knowledge salient for engineering design.…”

“…With such diverse prior experiences, larger class sizes, and limited access to deeply understand students' cultures, how can faculty identify specific funds of knowledge to build upon (Smith & Lucena, 2016; Wilson‐Lopez et al, 2016)? Research suggests two primary approaches: first, faculty may develop means other than ethnographic studies to learn about their students' funds of knowledge, such as by using a survey or inventory based on prior ethnographic research (Sias et al, 2016; Verdín et al, 2021) or asking students to write reflections on their experiences in ways that prompt the students to make connections visible (Mejia & Wilson‐Lopez, 2015). This approach also addresses the issue that students may not recognize that their past out‐of‐school experiences are valuable in formal settings (Smith & Lucena, 2016; Wilson‐Lopez et al, 2016).…”

“…As we investigated the pre-existing curriculum, we also deliberately investigated our students' funds of knowledge, considered in tandem with the results of other scholars (Mejia et al, 2014;Sias et al, 2016;Wilson-Lopez et al, 2016). While the most well-known methods of identifying funds of knowledge are the intensive and inductive ethnographic methods that include extended interactions, interviews, and home and community visits, scholars have extended these approaches, building carefully on the work of others, using deductive methods such as surveys and course assignments to identify funds of knowledge (Denton & Borrego, 2021;Hogg, 2011;Rios-Aguilar, 2010;Verdín et al, 2019Verdín et al, , 2021. We developed surveys influenced by this body of work to identify students' funds of knowledge (Svihla et al, 2016).…”

“…Future studies could extend this line of work by investigating whether some sources of funds of knowledge-family, community, or recreational (Wilson-Lopez et al, 2018)-are more broadly useful in serving as a foundation for future learning. Likewise, research could map students' funds of knowledge, identified with a recently developed survey (Verdín et al, 2021), to existing design challenges to consider instructional designs and strategies that support students to deploy their funds of knowledge. While we found that students showed growth in considering contexts of use, we had hoped to also find growth in their consideration of multiple roles.…”

First‐generation college students' funds of knowledge support the development of an engineering role identity

“…The engineering role identity development process used throughout this study includes mechanisms of interest, performance/competence beliefs, and external and internal recognition. While students' funds of knowledge are extensive, this paper focuses on seven that have been validated in prior work (Verdín et al, 2021). Our study shows that a funds of knowledge approach can provide a platform for students to incorporate their lived experiences into defining their identities within the engineering context.…”