Engineering Education in Times of War, Upheaval, and Revolution
- Conference
- Location
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Portland, Oregon
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2024
- Start Date
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June 23, 2024
- End Date
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July 12, 2024
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)
- Tagged Topic
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Diversity
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/47280
Paper Authors
Amy E. Slaton Drexel University
Amy E. Slaton is a Professor Emerita of History at Drexel University. She writes on issues of identity in STEM education and labor, and is the author of _Race, Rigor and Selectivity in U.S. Engineering: The History of an Occupational Color Line_.
Sepehr Vakil Northwestern University
Sepehr Vakil is an assistant professor of Learning Sciences in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Previously he was Assistant Professor of STEM Education and the Associate Director of Equity & Inclusion in the Center
Abstract
Abstract: “Engineering Education in Times of War, Upheaval and Revolution”
In this paper we consider how the conditions of wartime, uprising, and other dramatic social episodes reveal possibilities for a more historically grounded and socio-politically engaged engineering-student identity. We do not see social crises as constituting exceptional moments, culturally, but rather as revealing nascent and often unsanctioned forms of civic and disciplinary identity among engineering students. To grasp the discursive and material features of Engineering education exposed during crises, we build on existing interdisciplinary literature examining the politicization of engineering education across transnational higher-education settings. This body of work has made evident how “value-free” characterizations of scientific and technical learning or practice poorly capture cultural, epistemic and ontological natures of Engineering in even the quietest political periods, let alone during social disturbance. We ask: How are engineering student identities constructed in relation to a discipline with robust connections to national objectives of industry and military, particularly in moments of upheaval and instability? How are ideas of national belonging and resistance formulated by engineering students and received by engineering institutions? We frame our inquiry through a comparison of student experiences at MIT and Sharif University in Iran during the 1970s, during which time students at the schools expressed a range of political commitments. Plans at MIT to train graduate students from Iran in support of that nation's nuclear program generated protest in both settings. By following the engineering student as social actor in times of war, upheaval or revolution we outline a less singular or determinate character for Engineering education than our studies usually indicate and suggest questions that may help us systematically explore that multiplicity in light of current political tensions.
Slaton, A. E., & Vakil, S. (2024, June), Engineering Education in Times of War, Upheaval, and Revolution Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47280
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