Engineering, Social Justice, and Peace: Strategies for Educational and Professional Reform

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

“…In this way, matters of context, including values around social equity and justice, are not weeded-out but are positively reinforced as critical components of engineering work. 44 Whereas interdisciplinary is achieved among instructors via a co-instructor model, PDI courses, projects, and even students are inherently interdisciplinary, or perhaps more precisely extradisciplinary. Students take open-ended, real-world design projects as a normal part of their educational experience, and so the boundaries frequently established around "real engineering" are not part of PDI students' early educational indoctrination.…”

A Principlist Approach for Thinking About the Social Impacts of Engineering

“…Nieusma 37 has discussed several pedagogical initiatives in which societal contextual issues can be introduced to students in their engineering training. Science and Technology Studies (STS) courses are one example where engineering students can be provided with both the conceptual knowledge of social context issues as well as the space for conversation about these complex issues.…”

“…37 Kabo has identified a number of important pedagogical approaches for engaging students and moving them through challenging "learning thresholds" around engaging with the complex issues of social impact of engineering. These strategies include both reflective classroom discussion and engaging with actual problems facing real communities.…”

“…These strategies include both reflective classroom discussion and engaging with actual problems facing real communities. Nieusma 37 also identifies active learning through community engagement as a successful pedagogical approach by highlighting the global engineering approach of Ingenieros sin Fronteras Colombia (ISFC, Engineers Without Borders Colombia).…”

“…37 The framework and reasoning process of Reflexive Principlism does not suggest to students that perspectives of others are always more accurate or more important than the engineering students own perspectives; rather, the move is to engage all perspectives in reflective analysis around the principles to provide an level of equanimity regarding values and specifications that can contribute to the most rich understanding of the problem and therefore likely the most effective solutions.…”