Critical Educational Theory: Applications in Engineering Education

Abstract

orado Boulder. He teaches courses in structures and vehicle design, and his research focuses on how mathematical models are taught in undergraduate engineering science courses and how these models are used in analysis and design. Before CU he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan and the Tufts University Center for Engineering Education and Outreach. He received his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2014 and a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan in 2008.

Pedagogical Orientations and Evolving Responsibilities of Technological Universities: A Literature Review of the History of Engineering Education

“…In its inception, the socially oriented TU fostered various curricular approaches, ranging from humanizing engineering via liberal education (Bucciarelli & Drew, 2018), teaching systems analysis to produce professional socio-technologists, introducing non-engineers to technological thinking or creating social-scientific experts outside of engineering (Wisnioski, 2012). More recently, we witness the emergence of non-mainstream currents promoting global and cultural awareness (Downey et al, 2006;Johri & Jesiek, 2014;Luegenbiehl & Clancy, 2017;, social justice (Baillie, 2020;Niles et al, 2020), activist engineering (Karwat, 2020), feminism (Riley, 2013), decolonial movements (Cordeiro Cruz, 2021; Kutay et al, 2018;Lord et al, 2019;Seniuk Cicek et al, 2021), liberative approaches (Bowen & Johnson, 2020;Riley, 2003), critical participation (York, 2018) and community participation in technology development and assessment (Kaplan et al, 2021). Through these pedagogical approaches, the social orientation strives to develop the identity of engineering graduates as citizens and community members.…”

CAREER: ‘Support our Troops’: Re-storying Student Veteran and Service Member Deficit in Engineering through Professional Formation and Community Advocacy: YEAR 1

“…This work adds to the growing body of literature that employ asset-based approaches to understand military student experience and outcomes in engineering education [e.g., [18][19][20][21]. This work further adds to an increasing use of liberative approaches to research and practice in engineering education more generally for the ultimate purpose of transformation in engineering education for all oppressed groups [e.g., [22][23][24].…”

Thinking Critically about Critical Research with Military Undergraduates in Engineering Education

“…Toward this end, scholars are increasingly calling for and employing critical approaches to engineering education research [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Critical approaches are unique in their focus on transformative praxis using the knowledge developed in the research process.…”

“…Table 1 presents and describes a (non-exhaustive) list of critical social theories used to critique institutional oppression in engineering. [9,20,21] Identifies and disrupts power imbalances present in educational settings, especially those connected to race and class Paulo Freire [22] bell hooks [23] Hidden Curriculum [24][25][26] Critiques hidden processes of recurring hierarchical socialization within education Henry Giroux [27] Race Critical Race Theory (CRT) [4,[28][29][30] Race Color Blind Racism [7] Race; Critiques arguments made to de-center issues of institutionalized racism and whiteness based on four tenets: abstract liberalism, cultural racism, naturalism, and the minimization of racism Eduardo Bonilla-Silva [33] Critical Whiteness [4] White privilege; The set of societal assumptions, privileges, and benefits that accompany the status of being White [34] Cheryl Harris [34] Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) [28,[35][36][37] Race; Assets-based; Derived from Critical Race Theory and in response to Bourdieuian Analysis of Capital which describes how societal power selects codes of capital; Identifies six unique types of dynamic and interactive capitals (wealths) that Students of Color possess and employ to resist oppression and navigate and succeed in socially unjust educational environments Tara J. Yosso [33] Ethnicity and Culture Funds of Knowledge (FoK) [38][39][40][41] Socio-cultural; Assets-based; Critiques educational practices that are disjointed from the lives of culturally and socio-economically diverse students; Calls for instructional approaches that bridge the historically accumulated, culturally developed, and socially distributed resources knowledge, skills, and practices that are essential for well-being in households and to function within communities [40] Luis Moll [42] Velez-Ibáñez and Greenberg …”