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Cultural Value in STEM + Entrepreneurship

<p>The purpose of
this study was to understand how urban entrepreneurship
exposure programs can enable minoritized students to leverage their cultural
capital and create an environment that affirms their inherent strengths and
cultural identity. More specifically, this study sought to answer the following
questions: (1) how, and in what ways, do minoritized youth (ages 14-18)
leverage their cultural capital in entrepreneurial experiences and (2) how, and
in what ways, can entrepreneurial experiences create an environment that
affirms minoritized youth’s (ages 14-18) inherent strengths and cultural
identity? To answer these questions, a qualitative descriptive approach was
used and the lenses of the <i>Community Cultural Wealth Framework</i> were
leveraged to conceptualize the findings. Purposeful sampling was employed to
recruit participants for this investigation. Observations of the program
implementation and in-depth semi-structured interviews with two high
school-aged minoritized students and one program administrator at an urban
entrepreneurship exposure program in a large Midwestern city were conducted.
The findings from this study suggest that cultural capital is worthy of
considerable attention as it is leveraged by minoritized youth and may
contribute to affirming their cultural identity and inherent strengths. Therefore,
the results obtained from this study can assist entrepreneurship exposure
programs in the development and enhancement of programs specifically geared
toward addressing the needs of this minoritized population segment. For
example, recommendations include employing Critical Race Theory in research
studies, utilizing counter-storytelling for the experiences of minoritized
youth, and investigating culturally sustaining innovations created by
minoritized youth. The results of this study, are important as it has
significant implications for developing better methods to train and nurture
talents of youth in becoming confident in their cultural identities and
necessitating success in becoming entrepreneurially-minded which in turn may
help to further diversify, fortify the STEM workforce, and break systemic
barriers. As such, this study can contribute and supplement existing literature
on minoritized youth in STEM educational contexts, specifically in
entrepreneurship focused STEM learning environments. </p>

  1. 10.25394/pgs.13313270.v1
Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/13313270
Date15 December 2020
CreatorsDonovan Colquitt (9713051)
Source SetsPurdue University
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, Thesis
RightsCC BY 4.0
Relationhttps://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Cultural_Value_in_STEM_Entrepreneurship/13313270

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