Work In Progress: Developing Changemaking Engineers (Year 2)

With funding from a National Science Foundation (NSF) IUSE/PFE: Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments (IUSE/PFE: RED) grant, we aim to "revolutionize" engineering education, by preparing students to practice engineering using a contextual framework that embeds humanitarian, sustainable and social justice approaches alongside technical engineering skills. This research will produce and disseminate a model for redefining the “engineering canon” to include a professional spine threaded throughout the curriculum with the goal of developing “Changemaking Engineers”. The revised engineering canon will build upon engineering technical skills to include the knowledge and professional skills needed to empower our graduates to impact society and enhance the common good. The model will provide a template for change for similar institution-types and create a platform for change that moves away from narrowly-constructed and techno-centric epistemological approaches. This work in process provides a descriptive overview of our progress to date. Introduction Traditionally, engineering students are trained technically, with less focus on critical examinations of assumptions within engineering practice, and less emphasis on the larger contexts in which engineering is embedded. With funding from a National Science Foundation (NSF) IUSE/PFE: Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments (IUSE/PFE: RED) (hereinafter referred to as RED) grant, our project team is working to create a curriculum to develop “Changemaking Engineers.” This enhanced curriculum will be rooted in the nexus of humanitarian practice, sustainability awareness, social justice, and professional practice. It will emphasize student teamwork, along with greater consideration of social and economic factors, improved communication with diverse constituents, and reflection on an ethical understanding of their decisions and solutions. It also requires that faculty members be empowered to mirror these values and skills in their instruction and mentoring. The RED grant connects professional skills directly to the ability to develop and evaluate solutions within these broader contexts. In this work in progress (WIP), we review our progress towards achieving this vision including: • Establishing a foundation for a revised engineering canon that includes greater integration of professional practices and societal responsibilities • Developing a faculty that embraces the redefined engineering canon and the professional spine • Establishing partnerships to develop a culture of change within the school, across campus, and outside of the university. Developing a Revised Engineering Canon We propose to establish a foundation for a revised engineering canon that goes beyond the usual emphasis on disciplinary engineering to include broader understanding of the ways that successful engineers work to achieve transformative results in all areas of society. This canon will help students develop the knowledge and skills needed to apply their technical knowledge through sustainable practice to promote advancement in many areas including social justice and humanitarian practice. We believe that this canon will also bring new students to engineering who will be attracted by the opportunity to become Changemaking Engineers. We also proposed to develop a learning environment where disciplinary knowledge and social perspective are purposefully connected to professional practice. To achieve this goal, the canon will weave co-curricular experiences throughout the curriculum by including both formal learning (e.g. in classroom or lab) and informal learning through internships, community service learning and extracurricular activities. At the beginning of the grant, we conducted a survey of all engineering faculty to establish baseline data on their attitudes to a changemaking curriculum and their interest in, and commitment to developing changes to the canon. In the baseline survey, we found that: • Many of the faculty do not find this goal important, nor have a good understanding of how to infuse some of the context into their courses. • Some faculty felt that their classes or programs already develop the competencies needed to become Changemaking Engineers. After reviewing the survey results, the RED team concluded that the faculty did not fully understanding of the extent of changes needed to transform engineering education to meet the goals of the project. Consequently, a significant effort is needed to help faculty embrace the changes, and develop the capacity to innovate their curricula. In conceptualizing a revised canon, we seek faculty support through the following strategies. The first strategy is the development of faculty so that they both value the integration of broader contexts for engineering and have the capacity to implement the curriculum. The second strategy is to partner engineering faculty with faculty from other schools outside of engineering who have expertise in social justice, peace, humanitarian advancement, and sustainable practices. Our third strategy is to develop a set of courses in a new General Engineering (GE) program that will introduce the disciplinary content typically taught in core sophomore and junior level classes through the Changemaking Engineers theme and integration of professional skills. Faculty Collaboration and Development of Instructional Capacity We proposed to engage the faculty in a collaborative model of leadership to achieve our revolution of engineering education and we proposed to provide faculty with opportunities to acquire the skills, attitudes, and behaviors that would help drive the desired curricular change. To accomplish these goals we are offering collaborative leadership workshops and events and faculty empowerment workshops and events. Collaborative Leadership Workshops Collaborative leadership workshops and events are related to creating shared vision, imagining a revised canon, and methods and tools for shared leadership. These events also are envisioned to develop ideas for interdisciplinary team-based teaching in collaboration with other schools/colleges on campus. We have held eight collaborative workshops/events. 1. Speed Networking: The goal of these events is to begin to explore potential partnerships between engineering and other schools and colleges on campus that could lead to new curricula and course delivery models. The events focused on discussions to identify opportunities for engineering faculty to collaborate with faulty from other units to develop interdisciplinary curriculum in the areas of professional skills, social justice, humanitarian practice, peace, and sustainability. We characterize these events as Collaborative Leadership since we needed to provide a forum for different faculty to meet and begin to develop their contributions to the new canon. We have held two such events. Some of the new courses discussed below are a direct result of these events. 2. Social Justice and Humanitarian Engineering Workshops: Juan Lucena and Jessica Smith of Colorado School of Mines presented the first workshop that focused on incorporating humanitarian perspectives in classroom activities. A second workshop delivered by Caroline Ballie emphasized the nexus between engineering and social justice. The objectives of the workshops were to develop an understanding of the barriers, mindsets, and ideologies that get in the way of integrating humanitarian engineering and social justice in the engineering curriculum and strategies for how to overcome them. As part of the workshop, participants began to develop an understanding of how standard questions from core engineering topics such as statics can be reframed to include humanitarian and social justice perspectives. 3. The Origins of Changemaking Engineers: This workshop, from Virginia Tech’s Matthew Wisnioski, focused on the history of Changemaking Engineering including prior attempts to infuse humanitarian engineering and social justice issues into the engineering curriculum. Wisnioski provided an important set of lessons on the history of social innovation in engineering practice, the roles faculty have played in narrating social change through the lens of engineering, and the sustainability of these change initiatives. We learned the importance of social actors in creating a discourse of change within engineering, the conditions that produced successes, and that resources must be mobilized and structures must accommodate changes in order for them to succeed. 4. Strategic Planning: The university has recently conducted a strategic planning process that has resulted in six pathways including Changemaking and Care for Our Common Home. We have leveraged this institutional initiative by conducting three strategic planning sessions in the school that emphasized developing a shared meaning of Changemaking Engineering. Faculty members performed a SWOT analysis, identifying the most important opportunities that we should pursue under the theme of Changemaking Engineering. Faculty Empowerment Workshops To develop the most meaningful faculty capacity building workshops, we surveyed the faculty to identify areas for development. Based on these findings, we delivered two faculty capacity building workshops and conducted a faculty cluster hire. 1. Teaching Student Teams. This workshop from Matthew Ohland at Purdue University was designed to help faculty design, implement, and evaluate positive team-based learning experiences for their classes. The workshop focused on the CATME [1] model of teamwork to present proven strategies for forming, teaching, and managing teams for small assignments and large class projects. 2. Leading Effective Discussions in Engineering Classes. This workshop was developed for engineering faculty by our university’s Center for Teaching and Learning to address the faculty-identified need to learn how to sustain high-quality