Deconstructing the White Savior Model through Engineers Without Borders student chapters: an unlikely intervention
- Conference
- Location
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Minneapolis, MN
- Publication Date
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August 23, 2022
- Start Date
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June 26, 2022
- End Date
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June 29, 2022
- Conference Session
- Page Count
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17
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--41807
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/41807
- Download Count
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927
Paper Authors
Lizabeth Thompson California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Dr. Lizabeth Thompson is the Director of General Engineering and a professor in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. She holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Cal Poly, SLO, a MS in Industrial and Systems Engineering and an MBA from University of Southern California, and a PhD in Education from University of California, Santa Barbara. She has been at Cal Poly for nearly 30 years and has held various positions on campus including Co-Director of LAES, Director of Women’s Engineering Programs, and CENG Interim Associate Dean. Although she has taught over 25 different courses she current teaches Financial decision making, First year engineering, Senior project, and Change management. Her research is in Engineering Education where she has received $9.8 million of funding from NSF as either PI or Co-PI. She researches equitable classroom practices, integrated learning, and institutional change. She spent the 2019-2020 academic year at Cal State LA where she taught and collaborated on research related to equity and social justice. With her colleagues at Cal State LA she recently received an NSF grant called Eco-STEM which aims to transform STEM education using an asset-based ecosystem model. She is also a Co-PI on an NSF S-STEM grant called ENGAGE which is working to make a more robust transfer pathway for local Community college students. Dr. Thompson is a Co-PI on an NSF ADVANCE grant called KIND with other universities within the CSU. She is a co-advisor to Engineers without Borders, Critical Global Engagement, and oSTEM at Cal Poly.
Andrew Chan California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Julia Cannon California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Jane Lehr California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Dr. Jane L. Lehr is the Director of the Office of Student Research and Professor in Ethnic Studies and Women’s, Gender & Queer Studies at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. She is also Director of the CSU Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Student Participation (LSAMP) in STEM Program at Cal Poly and affiliated faculty in the Center for Engineering, Science & Mathematics Education (CESAME); the department of Computer Science & Software Engineering; and the Science, Technology & Society Program. Dr. Lehr previously served as elected co-chair of the Science & Technology Taskforce of the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA), and as a Postdoctoral Research Officer at the Centre for Informal Learning and Schools (CILS) at King's College, University of London. Her graduate training is in Science & Technology Studies and Women's Studies at Virginia Tech and her teaching and research focus primarily on the complex relationships between gender, race, culture, science, technology, and education.
Abstract
For many students in Engineers Without Borders (EWB), their desire to join the club is fueled by a desire to help others, pay back, or contribute to social good. Some students, as they explore scholarship and discussions on the criticisms of sustainable development, experience a sort of cognitive dissonance as they continue their work within organization they are not entirely aligned with, often questioning the impacts and motivations of their own efforts. At EWB, University X, we have intentionally encouraged this process, with a desire to allow people to confront the difficult questions regarding global development. This paper will outline the salient theories, frameworks, and criticisms regarding sustainable development work and its connection to voluntourism, capitalism, and neocolonialism. Recognizing that these attempts to help others are in reality student-centered [1] and tend to fail the partner communities [2], we desire to investigate how to better center partner communities in our work [3], and describe several attempted interventions into our chapter that seek to center these concerns and more critically examine our efforts to make a positive impact and minimize our unintended harms. We also describe individual stories of this transformational process, examining our collective positionalities as “outsiders within” seeking to change an institution we are a part of but not entirely aligned with [4]. Finally, we describe the directions we are moving in to further encourage reflection and action to center sustainability and community agency in our efforts [5] [6].
Thompson, L., & Chan, A., & Cannon, J., & Lehr, J. (2022, August), Deconstructing the White Savior Model through Engineers Without Borders student chapters: an unlikely intervention Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41807
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