This project will develop, pilot, evaluate, and document an activity sequence, rooted in culturally sustaining and critical pedagogies, in which sociotechnical case study development is student-led. This sequence will be designed for and piloted in at least three Intro to Engineering courses in the Fall of 2024 to build a scalable model that could be applied across all sections of the course in the future.
The motivations for a student-led approach to sociotechnical case study development are at least the following three. We aim to:
- Center the students’ voices, as of members of a particular cultural community, in narratives about the ways in which technology impacts different communities.
- Challenge students to consider the nuances of power, identity, and positionality within those narratives.
- Generate a more authentic exchange wherein peers of different cultural identities collectively develop critical understandings of expertise, engineering history, and technological development.
This project is intended to complement the work done by the Center for Socially-Engaged Design (C-SED) and the Teaching Engineering Equity (TEE) Center by establishing a classroom environment in an introductory engineering course that creates a sense of belonging for all students, encourages critical thinking about and within engineering, and prepares students to engage meaningfully with stories about social impacts of engineering in communities other than their own. It also provides an opportunity to develop students’ skills in empathy, self-reflection, and ethical engagement.
Project Team
Kelsey McLendon
Technical Communication
Katie Snyder
Technical Communication
Funding
This team was awarded $4,950 in funding in Summer 2024.