Strategic Disruptions Toward a More Liberatory Engineering Education

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Abstract
  • This works-in-progress paper explores the link between systems of domination and engineering
    education. Engineering education’s rigid methodologies and the inflexible “gauntlet” of
    engineering curricula are highly structured– but is conformist, highly structured thinking
    necessarily a gateway to complacency in the face of injustice? Could aspects of engineering
    education make one more comfortable within systems of domination? Or, might the rigid
    conformist nature of engineering education make it more attractive to those with such
    tendencies?
    Technological development has historically accelerated under authoritarian regimes, including the
    design and implementation of some of the most violent technologies in history. While some
    academics have provided full-throated critiques of authoritarianism, academia itself has also long
    stood to protect white supremacy, systemic bias and patterns of exclusion. This paper builds on
    analyses of engineering education’s rigidity, conformity and exclusivity, depoliticization, and
    decontextualization. As extremist ideologies gain footholds around the globe, and are used to
    perpetuate systemic injustices, what responsibility does engineering education have to provide
    students with ways of thinking that resist and oppose them?
    We construct curricular interventions to help students repoliticize and recontextualize their
    engineering knowledge, and encourage more free, critical, and creative thought within the
    engineering culture, in order to weaken the link between engineering and systems of domination -
    contributing to a more liberatory engineering education.
TitleStrategic Disruptions Toward a More Liberatory Engineering Education
CreatorKoh, Rachel
Rossmann, Jenn Stroud
PublisherASEE Virtual Annual Conference Proceedings
Academic DepartmentMechanical Engineering
DivisionEngineering
OrganizationLafayette College
Date Issued2021
Date Available2021-08-16
TypeArticle
LanguageEnglish
Bibliographic CitationKoh, R. and J. S. Rossmann (2021) "Strategic Disruptions Toward a More Liberatory Engineering Education." ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Proceedings. Paper 34766.
Standard IdentifierHandle 10385/qn59q5526
Permalinkhttp://hdl.handle.net/10385/qn59q5526
Rights Statement In Copyright In Copyright
Rights HoldersAmerican Society for Engineering Education
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