Article ID: CBB296248933

Conducting the Instrumentalists: A Framework for Engineering Liberal Education (2015)

unapi

Nieusma, Dean (Author)


Engineering Studies
Volume: 7
Issue: 2-3
Pages: 159-163


Publication Date: 2015
Edition Details: Special Issue: Liberal Studies in Engineering
Language: English

This short paper comments upon a concern repeatedly voiced by would-be engineering education reformers, namely what to do about the profound instrumentalist orientation to education prevalent across engineering. Especially among promoters of engineering and liberal education integration, great anxiety arises in response to today's slide toward instrumentalist rationales for higher education generally and their acute manifestation within engineering programs in particular. This paper reviews one program's strategy for responding to this instrumentalism. Rather than merely augment the existing technical core with liberal education content, our program strives to frame the entire educational experience of our students: It seeks to provide the curricular, conceptual, and pedagogical frameworks to situate students’ engineering coursework (i.e. the technical core) as well as their identities within a more expansive vision of engineering in society. The paper reviews three mechanisms through which we embrace our students’ pragmatic impulses and then leverage them to help students reflect critically on the role of education in advancing their personal, educational, and career goals.

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Article Downey, Gary (2015) Liberal Studies in Engineering: Editor's Introduction. Engineering Studies (pp. 99-102). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB296248933/

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Authors & Contributors
Rider Foley
Gillette, David D.
Dew, David E.
Kacey Beddoes
Tang, Xiaofeng
Clough, G. Wayne
Concepts
Education, engineering
Engineering
Curriculum change
Design
Liberal studies
Liberalism
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
Places
United States
Colombia
Institutions
Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
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