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‘It Gives Me a Bit of Anxiety’: Civil and Architectural Engineering Students’ Emotions Related to Their Future Responsibility as Engineers

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Values in Engineering: Ethics and Justice-Oriented Engineering

Tagged Division

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)

Page Count

15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--42304

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/42304

Download Count

144

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Paper Authors

biography

Madeline Polmear Vrije Universiteit Brussel Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-7774-6834

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Madeline Polmear is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie, EUTOPIA Science & Innovation Cofund Fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. Her research interests relate to engineering ethics education and the development of societal responsibility and professional competence through formal and informal learning. Madeline received her Bachelors in environmental engineering, Masters in civil engineering, and PhD in civil engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA. Prior to coming to the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, she was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida, USA.

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Abstract

Emotion is an integral part of teaching and learning. Emotion is intertwined with students’ responses to topics, reactions to experiences in the classroom, and interactions with peers and faculty members. However, emotion is under-researched in the context of engineering education. This research paper explores civil and architectural engineering students’ emotions related to their ethical and societal responsibility. This research is part of a larger study in Belgium and England that examines students’ conceptualization of their societal responsibility and the factors inside and outside the classroom that shape it. The broader project employs a constructivist grounded theory approach and interviews with engineering students at one university in each of these two countries. Preliminary analysis of the interview data indicated the role of emotion in students’ understanding of their future responsibility as an engineer. The present study probes this emergent finding with a social constructionist approach, which describes the theoretical perspective that emotions are a sociocultural experience and are situated rather than a purely individual and internal phenomenon.

Data collection is ongoing, and a total of 10 semi-structured interviews have been conducted in Belgium and England. The present paper examines the emotions that students express related to their future responsibility as an engineer, which include fear, anxiety, stress, and pressure. The analysis also explores the sociocultural factors that contribute to these emotional responses, such as the way the engineering profession is portrayed, the theoretical nature of engineering education, and the limited visibility of social and ethical issues in the curriculum. The implications of this research are a contribution to the growing conversation around emotion in engineering education, including how emotions can be socially constructed and affect students’ perspectives on their future responsibility as engineers.

Polmear, M. (2023, June), ‘It Gives Me a Bit of Anxiety’: Civil and Architectural Engineering Students’ Emotions Related to Their Future Responsibility as Engineers Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42304

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