My dissertation addresses three studies which ask broadly: What are the predictive metrics of functioning AS-CTE pathways? Can students’ perceptions of these pathways be changed? Are these pathways equitable for female students? In my first study, I take a step toward better understanding the metrics that explain functioning AS-CTE pathways. Through ethnography, I observed that when social mobility was added as a metric of high-quality PBL with AS-CTE in a predictive framework of education success, attendance levels improved. In my second study, I investigated an opportunity gap (Ladson-Billings, 2013) contributing to students’ perceptions that AS-CTE does not lead to advanced STEM degrees. That perception forms a resistance to AS-CTE pathways, hindering efforts to include underrepresented demographics such as women. This study aims to explain to what degree the opportunity gap influences perceptions of obscure high-wage, high-skill careers by youth of an underrepresented demographic. In my final study, I investigated how AS-CTE pathways present barriers to inclusion through hegemonic masculinity (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005). Building on the work of (Tarantino et al., 2016), this study employs a feminization of PBL mentor intervention to help break down the barriers of hegemonic masculinity in secondary STEM-CTE classrooms. Through ethnographic action research (Hartmann et al., 2009), I found evidence that the humanizing of our VDC-PBL intervention allowed for sites of resistance to gender norms. These studies make three important and timely contributions to the field of AS-CTE and engineering education more broadly. First, I uncover and remediate an ineffective metric of program efficacy, then reveal an opportunity gap which impacts marginalized youth more acutely, and finally I reveal a toxic masculinity within AS-CTE pathways which further impacts those with compounding marginalizations. While uncovering these trends, I offer recommendations to remediate these issues, while also highlighting what is working for these pathways.

Background: There has been a dearth of research on intersectional identities in STEM, including the fields of computing and engineering. In computing education research, much work has been done on broadening participation, but there has been little investigation into how the field of computer science (CS) presents opportunities for students with strong intersectional identities. This study explores the strengths and connections among the unique identities and the symbiotic relationships that elementary Latina students hold in CS identity attainment.

Purpose: The aim of this article is to better understand how predominantly low-income, multilingual Latina students experience identity development through the lens of diverse group membership. We examine how young Latinas, through their participation in a yearlong culturally and linguistically responsive CS curriculum, leverage their intersecting identities to rewrite the formula of what a computer scientist is and can be, leaving space to include and invite other strong identities as well.

Research Design: An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was used that analyzed data from predominantly low-income, multilingual Latinas in upper elementary grades, including pre- and post-CS identity surveys (N = 50) delivered before and after implementation of the curriculum, and eight individual semi-structured student interviews.

Findings: We found that Latina students developed significantly stronger identification with the field of CS from the beginning to the end of the school year with regard to their experiences with CS, perception of themselves as computer scientists, family support for CS and school, and friend support for CS and school. Interviews revealed that perception of their CS ability greatly influenced identification with CS and that girls’ self-perceptions stemmed from their school, cultural, and home learning environments.

Conclusion: Our results highlight the wealth of resources that Latinas bring to the classroom through their home- and community-based assets, which are characterized by intersecting group membership. Students did not report on the intersection between language and CS identity development, which warrants further investigation.

Computing skills such as programming, graphic design, and networking are among the fastest growing in the modern workplace. Computing skills are increasingly critical in many roles including STEM (Malyn-Smith & Lee, 2012) and non-STEM occupations (Grinis, 2019). The American education system responded to this need by creating more educational opportunities for youth to prepare for these roles. For example, the number of California students attending schools offering a CS course has grown from 33.2% to 79.1% since 2010 (Bruno & Lewis, 2021). The growth is designed to support workforce readiness in computing-related occupations.

Federal policy frames Career and Technical Education (CTE) coursework as part of a college and career readiness strategy preparing youth for high-paying, in-demand occupations. Computing is one of many areas students can choose to concentrate in (defined as taking two or more credits in the field) during high school. Despite being the most popular secondary CTE concentration, computing coursework is being offered and taken in patterns unrelated to their utility value (Sublett & Griffith, 2019). Generally, there is little evidence to suggest why certain students choose or avoid certain CTE pathways (Leu & Arbeit, 2020). Where there is evidence, students draw from a multitude of factors including, but not limited to, future career interests (DeFeo, 2015; Fletcher & Cox, 2012). Given the broad labor market applicability of computing skills relative to other CTE concentrations, there is little evidence to guide policy-makers and researchers to design and investigate inclusive computing education pathways. We respond to this need by addressing the following research question:

- What are the school- and student-level factors associated with taking two or more computing courses during high school?

The present study investigates the factors associated with becoming a computing concentrator in high school. The prior literature suggests that computing coursework is framed as a workforce-readiness strategy though that does not play out in the data and little is known about what motivates students to pursue these courses. We apply Situated Expectancy Value Theory

(SEVT; Eccles & Wigfield, 2020) to model who takes two or more computing courses during high school using a two-level logistic regression model on data from the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09).