LOOKING BEYOND FIDDLERS GREEN COLLEGE: SOCIAL JUSTICE IN WORKFORCE ENGINEERING EDUCATION PATHWAYS

Abstract

Too often, research into postsecondary workforce and engineering education focuses solely on curricula and ignores student matriculation to high-skill high-wage careers. The purpose of this study is to investigate this subject through dual ethnographies in Project-Based Learning (PBL) Career and Technical Education (CTE) workforce pathways in Silicon Valley. This study looks to better explain functioning pathways. The authors take inspiration from three publications: past research found that seven PBL essentials form good learning outcomes [1]; a measurable outcome of PBL is higher attendance [2]; to which Applied STEM CTE (AS-CTE) [3] framed attendance as a predictor metric of the efficacy of a workforce pathway. We ask which metrics help explain successful workforce CTE pathways. Our ethnography uncovers two distinct postsecondary PBL pathways and explores a new predictive metric of social mobility, which helps to reveal the pathways' struggle to support marginalized students' mobility into the high-skill high-wage building workforce. Despite these challenges, a Labor-Union-administered apprenticeship pathway showed promise in aiding social mobility. The authors uncovered early evidence that social mobility may be added as a metric to a predictive ontology framework of pathway success.

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IACEE2022 Proceedings
18TH World Conference on Continuing Engineering Education, 06 - 10 June 2022
LOOKING BEYOND FIDDLERS GREEN COLLEGE: SOCIAL JUSTICE
IN WORKFORCE ENGINEERING EDUCATION PATHWAYS
Ryan Lundell1, Jonathan Montoya2, Forest Peterson3, Anthony Kinslow II3,
Renate Fruchter4, Martin Fischer3, Andres Sebastian Bustamante5, Pedro Nava1
1 School of Education, Santa Clara University (United States)
2 Digital Learning Lab, University of California Irvine (United States)
3 Center for Integrated Facility Engineering, Stanford University (United States)
4 Project Based Learning Laboratory, Stanford University (United States)
5 STEM Learning Lab, University of California Irvine (United States)
Abstract
Too often, research into postsecondary workforce and engineering education focuses solely on curricula
and ignores student matriculation to high-skill high-wage careers. The purpose of this study is to
investigate this subject through dual ethnographies in Project-Based Learning (PBL) Career and
Technical Education (CTE) workforce pathways in Silicon Valley. This study looks to better explain
functioning pathways. The authors take inspiration from three publications: past research found that
seven PBL essentials form good learning outcomes [1]; a measurable outcome of PBL is higher
attendance [2]; to which Applied STEM CTE (AS-CTE) [3] framed attendance as a predictor metric of
the efficacy of a workforce pathway. We ask which metrics help explain successful workforce CTE
pathways. Our ethnography uncovers two distinct postsecondary PBL pathways and explores a new
predictive metric of social mobility, which helps to reveal the pathways’ struggle to support marginalized
students’ mobility into the high-skill high-wage building workforce. Despite these challenges, a Labor-
Union-administered apprenticeship pathway showed promise in aiding social mobility. The authors
uncovered early evidence that social mobility may be added as a metric to a predictive ontology
framework of pathway success.
Keywords: Social mobility, Engineering education, Workforce pathways, Equity, Virtual design and
construction
1 INTRODUCTION
Despite the fact that Silicon Valley is one of the most technologically advanced regions in the world,
entire groups of people are prevented from partaking in this prosperity. Just as the technology industry
attracts the best talent globally, technical trades taught in the workforce postsecondary Career Technical
Education (CTE) industry also draw talent. Highly skilled workers are in ever-increasing demand to
construct the massive mixed-use development projects in the San José region. For many, the high-skill
CTE pathway is the pathway to high-wage prosperity.
Employing ethnographic methods as postsecondary Applied Science Technology Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) CTE (AS-CTE) instructors, the investigators observed that many students did not
achieve their goal of social mobility to high-skill, high-wage jobs. These observations necessitate further
inquiry to address that lack of student matriculation into that high-wage high-skill workforce. Practitioners
and theorists must first acknowledge large systemic barriers to success in order to ensure program
efficacy and to also include historically marginalized groups in these successful pathways.
Historically, high-skill trades were learned through trade Union–mentored apprentice programs.
Versions of workforce training have taken many forms, and the investigators are attuned to the past
exploitation of non-union vocational programs that largely targeted Black, Indigenous, and People of
Color (BIPOC). These programs did not provide social mobility. We must be clear that the investigators
are not promoting this toxic form of workforce education, nor are we advocating for a ‘cheap’ labor force.
2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
The investigators predict the observed lack of social mobility is due to leaks in the education system.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the postsecondary AS-CTE workforce pathways in the San
José region to uncover additional metrics that help explain successful workforce pathways.

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18TH World Conference on Continuing Engineering Education, 06 - 10 June 2022
3 REVIEW OF POSTSECONDARY SUCCESS METRICS
Research on Applied STEM Career and Technical Education (AS-CTE) typically frames vocational
education success through input metrics like motivation [2], and administrative qualities like leadership
[3]. Plasman and Gottfried [1], employing a case of AS-CTE, used attendance as an input metric
predictor of a successful workforce pathway. The investigators draw from underpinning concepts in AS-
CTE to guide their formalization of a metric framework that shows an improvement in predictive efficacy
for academic success, building on Plasman and Gottfried’s contribution of an attendance metric.
3.1 Critique of workforce education
There is currently a movement to rebrand the CTE or vocational education pathways for high-skill labor
to attract more diverse students. The unfortunate reality is that despite this attempt, these pathways
cannot escape their toxic past. For many years, vocational institutions have exploited people locally and
abroad. Domestically, this victimization and exploitation included Indigenous youth and other BIPOC
groups [6]. In order to truly address these issues in workforce pathways, we must first accept and
acknowledge injustices such as historical tracking and exploitation of marginalized groups in vocational
institutions. Many training centers or vocational schools were created for proletarization. In workforce
vocational education, the personification of proletarization can be seen in high-tech manufacturing
industries where exploited workers help produce commodities that they cannot afford. The necessary
rebranding of high-tech CTE is evident in fields such as cybersecurity, and coding, where these fields
are being rebranded to attract and retain a more diverse workforce [34]. This attempt at rebranding and
attraction may be the birth of a new era of vocational education, which continues to exploit a new version
of high-skill workers.
3.2 Historical views of CTE certifications
The workforce education system aims to develop human capital. Domestically, this is completed through
the community college system, which educates 40 percent of American undergraduate students [9].
Community colleges focus on credentials that categorize workers, assigning them different values from
a historical lens. Groeger [10, 11]—in extending Human Capital Theory—posits that craft employers see
this education as a metric of human capital. The investigators are aware of these origins and the role of
credentials and certifications. Although the investigators are well aware of this framing, we do not wish
to view this study through a lens of Human Capital Theory. The investigators are inspired by Groeger’s
[11] problematizing of human capital theory and their critique of credentialism. Following the lead of
Groeger [11], the investigators question an actualization of human capital for the marginalized.
Viewing CTE history through a critical lens, the investigators entered their ethnographies of the Silicon
Valley postsecondary AS-CTE workforce education centers to develop and teach an AS-CTE course.
4 STUDY METHODOLOGY
4.1 Experiment setting
The investigators studied the role of predictive ontology metrics such as social mobility through
ethnography [12] and examples gained through a community-based participatory research approach
(CBPR) [13]. This CBPR is part of a larger project [15, 17, 18] that includes community participants such
as Union leadership, policymakers, and industry practitioners. The CBPR is collectively known as the
Santa Clara County Construction Careers Association (S4CA). The investigators' methodological
approach does not attempt to interject a fictional perfect reality into our observations [11, 13]. Rather,
we look to understand a pragmatic reality, and then explain that reality and apply the explanation in a
useful way [16]. The ethnography was operated through investigator roles as classroom instructors in
postsecondary Problem-, Project-, Product-, Process-, People-based Learning (5-PBL) [19] educational
settings in community college, apprenticeship, and adult education: note that in a quick census this is
the only PBL program the investigators found in Silicon Valley public education. PBL industry mentor
role provided the investigators an additional observatory perspective along with the CBPR participants
which contributed as industry mentors.
The investigators are informed by their larger lived experiences. Before their roles as investigators in
university settings, they were laborers [36, 37]. During these years-long experiences, they took on
leadership roles where they were recognized by their fellow workers as ‘lead’ laborers—carpenter

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18TH World Conference on Continuing Engineering Education, 06 - 10 June 2022
material handler and concrete laborer respectively—taking on responsibilities including mentoring new
laborers. That lived role allowed for insight and brought a legacy of unique relationships, which facilitated
access to this academic setting.
4.2 Research-practice partnership
The RPP includes educators from four high schools, three community colleges, eight apprenticeship
programs, an adult education program, and two universities. This paper, and hence these partnerships,
focus primarily on the postsecondary education institutions.
4.3 Participants
This study relies on data from participating students, instructors, and mentors. The participants were
recruited from two community colleges which we have combined and assigned the pseudonym Fiddlers
Green College. Participants also come from an apprenticeship education center which we call the Pipe
Trades Education Center.
The community is located in the San José region of Silicon Valley. Regional demographics are
approximately evenly divided between Latinx, Asian, and white. As one of the most linguistically diverse
regions in the country [20], more than half of households primarily speak languages other than English.
Our participants primarily live in a lower-income working-class community where feeder school
demographics are 50 percent low socioeconomic status, which qualifies these students for free and
reduced-price meals in K-12 schools. Although distinctly working-class and racialized, the students are
high-performing with their public schools ranked among the best in the state and country.
5 ETHNOGRAPHY-INFORMED STUDY
In order to address barriers and inequities in workforce pathways, the investigators explored the social
mobility of these pathways through taking on roles as associate faculty members at two local community
colleges collectively called Fiddlers Green [22]. We define social mobility as the students’ perceptions
that their education can award them a living wage career ($ 60.29 – $ 117.60 per hour [36]) and a viable
pathway to a higher education [17]. The Applied STEM CTE (AS-CTE) courses taught implemented a
social and environmental justice–focused virtual design and construction curriculum [12, 25, 26, 27, 28,
29, 17, 30, 31, 32, 18, 33]. The course is a stepping stone from a 2-year associate degree to a 4-year
bachelor's degree: course content includes engineering tools such as ALICE Technologies BIM (Building
Information Model) tools for preconstruction (5D BIM) and management (6D BIM) [33].
5.1 Interaction with a college student
The following narrative explores the experiences of one student who represents the many shared
experiences of students in these pathways.
The quote below is an account of an instructor/investigator’s first encounter with a postsecondary
student outside a classroom at Fiddlers Green College. The student shares their reasoning for attending
the postsecondary CTE course.
Although they did well in high school (secondary) and had completed a CTE education
program, they could not find a job. In their opinion, the college’s residential construction
framing course would give them an opportunity to secure a ‘good job.’ I asked if they
ever considered an apprenticeship. They said no. The student preferred community
college because they could work during the day.
This was a high-performing student in their late twenties. The student had perfect attendance in their
secondary and postsecondary courses. This student is a product of the secondary school which acts as
a feeder CTE program for the pipeline from secondary to postsecondary workforce education in the
region. Despite filling all the requirements to transition to a career-centered postsecondary education
pathway and subsequent career, this student was still taking courses at community college well into their
late twenties. They were also working an unrelated low-wage job to supplement their career education.
This lack of matriculation can be the result of many factors, but we must acknowledge the lack of
articulation which works to hinder the social mobility of this student and others like them. Their pathway
thus far has not led to the promised high-skill, high-wage workforce identified as the end goal of college
CTE programs.

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Below, an instructor/investigator describes arriving at a Fiddlers Green classroom early and waiting
outside, which allowed them to have conversations with several students. Their individual and collective
stories were very similar to this student and representative of many others. The instructor discusses the
issue of limited enrolment capacity, and the instructor/investigator ethnographer describes their concern
for the students who showed up for the course only to be turned away.
With enthusiasm, students asked if they would be able to add the class. The senior
instructor replied that they were not sure how many could add and to show up next
week. They then released the group and proceeded to explain to me that we needed to
cap the class at 18 students. I thought it was important to let them know there would be
no additions and not to waste their time. The senior instructor’s response: just tell them
next week.
It is not uncommon for community college CTE programs to be heavily impacted, but this interaction
highlighted a potential roadblock for students. Programs’ lack of transparency about the reality of their
policies provides more barriers for students. Unfortunately, many students returned to the following
course and were turned away. This instructor did not see their time as valuable. A complete disregard
for students’ time seemed to permeate much of the postsecondary CTE program at Fiddlers Green.
There were many instances where the instructors made it clear that they were not invested in
accommodating students’ schedules. Student needs in scheduling were not adequately considered.
More importantly, the instructors were not transparent about the program’s expectations and policies.
The attitudes and subsequent policies created inequitable programs where many of these students were
left in limbo, consistently a few courses away from certificates and degree completion. The completion
of these programs would theoretically give them the credentials to gain access to the high-skill, high-
wage job market. These experiences revealed that the labyrinthine pathway to work and career still has
many forks and blocks, and that its outcomes are often unfair.
5.2 Interaction with a college administrator
Fiddlers Green’s response when asked how many students have petitioned for an associates degree in
construction technology this past year.
There are typically nine per year of Associate of Science and Art combined.
Despite this information, the investigators could not actually find a case where a student had
completed their college workforce program. The investigators had themselves automatically
received an Associate in Art when they petitioned for an Associate in Science—it was not clear
if the nine degrees issued were to nine distinct students or to only five students.
5.3 Interaction with a pipe trades administrator
At the Pipe Trades Education Center, the investigator's role is that of a guest to observe an often-unseen
reality in CTE education. The Center is administered by a trade Union, and without a specific reason to
be on that site, you would not know it exists. A complex of clean, low-rise education buildings is tucked
away adjacent to a commercial zone, with a solidly constructed iron fence protecting the site.
The investigators interacted with students and administrators, revealing that an apprenticed pipe trades
journeyperson makes over 130 percent of the regional mean income. In addition, they have pension-
protected benefits, hiring hall, Union-negotiated labor standards and job protections, as well as
continued skills development.
The following quotes are from discussions with an administrator about student matriculation.
The administrator describes how current pathways make it difficult for students to transfer to higher
education.
There should be a new pathway for journeypersons graduating from the building trades
to earn a bachelor of science degree—the current pathways don’t fit their needs as first-
generation students navigating through transfer requirements to various university
systems.
The structure of postsecondary pathways hurts the ability of first-generation students to obtain advanced
degrees. One of the main purposes of education institutions should be to promote social mobility for
marginalized groups. In such a vital sector of the Silicon Valley economy, we should have a clear and

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sustainable pathway that meets the needs of all community members; without this pathway, we limit
access to jobs that pay a living wage and strengthen the middle class.
The administrator describes the success of the Pipe Trades Education Center in their formal partnership
with a Local Educational Agency (LEA) and adds a vision for the future.
Right now, the Pipe Trades Education Center graduates each year a handful of
apprentices (less than a dozen) that have successfully petitioned for an associate of
science; however, in each of the next years, there will be increasingly more graduates
as the students that started the first year of the new associate pathway complete the
last year.
Although more data must be gathered, the Pipe Trades Education Center has initially created a
successful pathway for students to enter postsecondary education. Using the Pipe Trades Education
Center as a model, the building trades industry in Silicon Valley can create successful pathways that
promote social mobility for marginalized groups.
6 DISCUSSION
This study reveals a lack of both social mobility and perceived social mobility for students meeting all
other success metrics.
The collective narrative of these students reveals a contradiction between how the workforce is
displayed and the objective realities of historically marginalized students: social mobility is symbolic and
not actual. The failure of the community colleges to create a functioning pathway contributes to the
predatory lending of for-profit education institutions: since the community college is a bureaucratic
labyrinth that is difficult to escape, students become easily swindled by the provocative marketing of
these for-profit institutions and their empty promises of social mobility. The result has been student debt
with no promise or hope for a job after graduation. In the end, students may be able to gain cultural
capital through certifications, but they are unable to convert that cultural capital to economic capital [38].
The Pipe Trades Education Center has begun to offer a counter-narrative, where social mobility is seen
as a defining metric of success along with attendance. For an equitable workforce, we must reflect upon
the historical roots of workforce pathways and avoid superficial improvements of past wrongs. To change
systemic problems, we need changes to the system. Let us first discard traditional instructions and take
only what is useful to avoid perpetuating historical injustices. The Pipe Trades counter-narrative reveals
that intentional pathways can lead to a socially mobile workforce.
Classes articulated to postsecondary institutions, a living wage, and protections of health and safety
might seem like a pipe dream; however, this reality exists in trade education at the authors' regional
Pipe Trades Education Center.
This study sheds light on how postsecondary Career Technical Education (CTE) institutions fall short of
their mission to increase employment and social mobility for students from marginalized communities.
Historically, access to education is not enough [10]. Unequal access to education credentials sustains
a privileged ruling class [11]. The demographic breakdown of these inequalities is seen in neighborhoods
throughout Silicon Valley [17]. This study examines possible correlations and connections between
inequities in the built environment and postsecondary CTE facilities.
If we understand the inequities present in society and how postsecondary institutions generate social
mobility, then we can begin to discover the best practices to change these inequities. Motivated by a
solidarity to their community, the authors aim to inform and involve community stakeholders so
institutions facilitate their workforce's mobility. Too often, underrepresented minorities and/or low-income
individuals are burdened by social and environmental injustices that impact livelihood and lack of
mobility. In high-tech regions like Silicon Valley, residents are exposed to environmental stresses and
contaminants that negatively impact the health of the community [17]. Furthermore, many live with
neurotoxins like lead paint, carcinogens like asbestos, or in close proximity to brownfields and
manufacturing facilities of unknown and mixed pollutants [21].
The authors explored pathways from the apprenticeship to regional university undergraduate programs.
In discussion with the apprentice education center's local educational agency administrator, the
investigators discovered a newly-formed pathway which has potential to become a successful pathway
for marginalized students to enter higher education: academic credit is given for knowledge gained
through high-skill apprenticeship education. However, despite the initial success of this pipe trades
pathway, more work must be done. For example, academic hegemony demands that students meet the

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needs of the institutions that serve them instead of the institutions considering the needs of the students.
This approach results in a complex pathway that limits the opportunity for the most marginalized
community members to enter a highly skilled and socially mobile workforce. These pathways could adopt
more horizontal power structures and let communities lead to meet their diverse needs. One way to work
towards this is to schedule courses around student need rather than faculty convenience, with an
occupationally aligned trade union administering the education center. Lastly, with no meaningful data
and no alignment between apprentice programs and community colleges, Silicon Valley building and
trades pathways have not maximized their ability to integrate marginalized community members into
middle-class jobs.
Union apprenticeship programs—such as the Pipe Trades Education Center—are an apparent pathway
to a higher education degree. When students understand concepts such as social justice, they begin to
believe deeply in social mobility. The skilled apprentice described in this paper would never be allowed
to teach even a CTE community college course; in contrast, even though the investigators knew nothing
specifically of the topic they were teaching, their advanced degrees allowed them to teach community
college classes.
7 LIMITATIONS
Due to their positionality and particular lens, the investigators understand that these ethnographies have
limitations in generality and blindness; thus, this study should not be generalized beyond its unique
setting. The investigators go in-depth with specific students and experiences in their unique pathway;
thus, while every effort is made to accurately describe their students’ experiences in the pathway, blind
spots and misinterpretations will inevitably occur. Lastly, the investigators provided extensive pre-
experiment education in VDC and PBL to the regional CTE construction instructors so that they could
collaborate with the RPP by administering a 5-PBL VDC program; however, once the investigators exited
the ethnography, the pathway program was not sustainable.
8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by the ECMC Bridging the Gaps to Postsecondary Career and Technical
Education fellowship. Thank you to Professor James Bartlett and Professor Michelle Bartlett from North
Carolina State University. This paper is a substantial revision with updated and new content of versions
of this paper titled “It's Just a Pipe Dream: Equitable Workforce Pathways For Silicon Valley,” which was
published as a research gate preprint, and a journal article titled “Fiddlers Green College: Looking for
Equitable Workforce Pathways in Silicon Valley,” which was published in the Journal of Problem Based
Learning in Higher Education.
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