Engineering Bait-and-Switch: K-12 Recruitment Strategies Meet University Curricula and Culture

Abstract

This paper uses the metaphor of engineering bait-and-switch to characterize the misalignment between educational approaches of major K-12 engineering initiatives and traditional highereducation engineering programs. We argue that this misalignment is the result of divergent underlying educational logics. While K-12 engineering education is notably inclusive, "baiting" student interest with context-driven, open-ended problem solving, higher engineering education "switches" toward an exclusive, abstract fundamentals-first approach. The paper begins by contextualizing engineering education as a political and economic issue in the US. Next, we describe K-12 programs and elaborate how they typically employ a logic of engagement. Then we describe university programs and elaborate how they employ a logic of exclusion. Finally, we review a program at our institution that seeks to resolve the underlying misalignment of engineering bait-and-switch, highlighting some of the ways it achieves engagement and avoids exclusion.

Action on Diversity: A Content Analysis of ASEE Conference Papers, 2015–2016

“…Other motivation-focused frameworks found were self-determination theory and self-efficacy framework. In the publications that used metaphors or worldviews for their work we observed the concept of 'engineering climate' (Copeland & Natarajarathinam, 2016) being discussed, a constructivist worldview (McGee, Robinson, Bentley, & Houston, 2015), as well as a metaphor of 'bait-andswitch' (Lachney & Nieusma, 2015) as means to characterize classroom teaching strategies. In order to assist people searching for frameworks when pursuing future work, Table 3 shows some examples of how authors used frameworks in our publication sample.…”

"Making" a Bridge: Critical Making as Synthesized Engineering/Humanistic Inquiry

“…23 Often, students in engineering experience alienation in educational contexts not because of the difficulty of the course content, but because the boundaries of what counts as engineering are often drawn in ways that exclude the kinds of knowledge production and embodied experiences that they associate with technical problem-solving approaches, such as hands-on making. 24,25,26 Inspired by critical making's imperative of weaving together conceptual and practical dimensions of critical inquiry, the authors see a complementariness between new conceptual models to attracting more diverse students and new engineering making practices to imagining what engineering's future may hold. Not only does critical making weave the practical and conceptual dimensions of inquiry; it also aims to contribute to knowledge generation both practically (via knowledge dissemination) and conceptually (via knowledge transformation).…”

Contextualizing 3D Printing's and Photosculpture's Contributions to Techno-Creative Literacies

“…The new emphasis on experimentation, and celebration of consumer-level participation in technical making activities, reverses decades of epistemological exclusivity around technology making 53 -that only the elite few have what it takes to be "a rocket scientist." The nascent making culture appears to attract throngs of followers on their own terms and without the need for elaborate public relations strategies.…”

“…However important technical analytic "competence" may be to safe, economic, timely engineering work, the extent to which engineering education emphasizes engineering's epistemological exclusiveness, 55 its glorification of discipline and rigor over open-endedness and dynamic flexibility, 56 suggests opportunities for disciplinary cultural transformation. The easy success of making and design cultures at attracting enthusiasm and diversity among participants provides a stark counterpoint to engineering's (and STEM's) enduring struggles in this regard, despite decades of targeted "outreach."…”