Exploring Racialized Ideologies About Latino/A/X Engineering Students In The United States Southwest Region

Although efforts in the United States (U.S.) to improve the participation and representation of minoritized populations in engineering have increased, there is a stagnant representation of Latinos/as/xs in engineering spaces. Given that a historical context of engineering education for Latinos/as/xs in the U.S. is limited in the engineering education research literature, this paper provides a description of the historical educational landscape of Latinos/as/xs in the U.S. Southwest region and connects that sociohistorical context to the current realities of Latinos/as/xs in the region through their testimonios. The U.S. Southwest is home to the largest Latino population in the U.S., who also happen to be predominantly, and historically, Mexican and Mexican American. Thus, this research paper focuses primarily on this region since it is also the location where most of the Latino/a/x engineering students reside and attend school. This paper draws from the theoretical framework of racialization to explore the ways in which racialized ideologies about Latinos/as/xs emerged from an orchestrated process of Americanization, linguistic violence, and deficit thinking that continues, to this day, to impact Latino/a/x engineering students. Implications of this study suggest that recognizing the role of racialized ideologies in shaping engineering education spaces may serve to help engineering educators identify the ways in which historical and sociopolitical forces are (re)enacted, perpetuated, but also challenged.