Multiple reform documents call for school-aged children to learn about engineering as a way of developing engineering-literate adults. Children’s attitudes towards and understandings of engineering are influenced by their conceptions of what engineering is. This multiple case study uses photo novellas to investigate primary-grade students’conceptualizations of engineering in their rural or reservation communities. Students from four schools completed similar photo novella assignments where they took pictures of what they considered engineering within their communities and further described those photos in writing or verbally. Photo novellas were analyzed using an a priori codebook to identify themes within and across cases. Every participant across all schools identified tangible engineering artifacts, while fewer students provided examples that represented engineering as systems or processes. Students from reservation schools were more likely to describe the purpose of their engineering examples and describe engineering as “helping.” Students in rural schools were more likely to include descriptions of math and science connections in their engineering examples. Rural students also used possessive language when identifying examples of engineering. This paper provides empirical data for a research-based activity to elicit young students’ ideas of engineering with attention to place-based learning. Findings indicate that photo novellas can be used as a tool for identifying children’s nuanced perspectives of engineering. As the engineering community continues to develop career pathways for students from rural places and Indigenous communities, it is important to recognize the nuanced perspectives different rural and Indigenous populations offer to the field.

多项改革文件呼吁学龄儿童学习工程学，以此作为培养具有工程素养的成年人的一种方式。孩子们对工程的态度和理解受到他们对工程的概念的影响。这个多案例研究使用摄影小说来调查小学生在农村或保留地社区对工程的概念化。来自四所学校的学生完成了类似的中篇小说摄影作业，他们拍摄了他们认为社区内的工程学照片，并以书面或口头形式进一步描述了这些照片。使用先验密码本分析照片中篇小说，以确定案例内和案例之间的主题。所有学校的每位参与者都确定了有形的工程工件，而较少的学生提供了将工程表示为系统或过程的示例。来自保留学校的学生更有可能描述他们的工程示例的目的，并将工程描述为“帮助”。农村学校的学生更有可能在他们的工程示例中包括对数学和科学联系的描述。农村学生在识别工程示例时也使用所有格语言。本文为一项基于研究的活动提供了实证数据，以激发年轻学生对工程学的想法，并关注基于地方的学习。研究结果表明，中篇小说可以用作识别儿童对工程学的细微差别的工具。随着工程社区继续为来自农村地区和土著社区的学生开发职业道路，重要的是要认识到不同的农村和土著人口为该领域提供的微妙视角。