Despite the fact that Career and Technical Education (CTE) prepares students for high-wage careers and in-demand jobs (Gordon & Schultz, 2020), it silences the voices it aims to empower by focusing on career alignment rather than community. This dissertation examines perceptions in rural communities in Wyoming to determine how CTE programs can better integrate training with local needs. Using a meta-aggregative research synthesis, the first manuscript synthesized the findings from multicultural education approaches across diverse settings in CTE classrooms over the last twelve years. In the second manuscript, a transformative variation of the Delphi technique was used to assess consensus and dissension among community experts in Wyoming, asking what they believe needs to be taught in postsecondary CTE. The third manuscript examined focus group data from 37 faculty members at five rural-serving community colleges (RSCCs) in Wyoming to analyze how relationships contribute to feelings of connectedness and isolation and to transformative teaching and learning. The RSCC focus groups reveal that faculty act as system conveners to facilitate STEM student transfers. In this dissertation, cultural responsiveness in CTE programs has been shown to increase student engagement, strengthen knowledge application, and facilitate rural STEM student transfer. Moreover, expert panelists identified workforce training based on labor force data but disagreed on how inequities can be addressed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]