Understandings of Social Justice in Engineering Education

Abstract

Despite being a core element in the engineers’ code of ethics, social justice is rarely discussed in engineering classrooms. International service-learning experiences offer opportunities to explore complex, socially relevant problems. Seven participants’ responses to surveys administered before and after an engineering design experience were analyzed to assess the participants’ understanding of social justice. Employing Leydons and Lucena’s six social justice criteria as a framework, we found all six criteria present in the participants’ responses, with all participants demonstrating contextual listening. Four participants’ responses aligned with all six criteria, indicating their desire to discuss social justice topics. Seven sub-themes were identified and include empathy, interest in people and culture, human-centered design, root cases, limited resources, personal agency, and the role of the engineering profession. The participants advocated for human-centered design, but their language did not include the community as co-designers. Also, the participants identified the complex political and economic nature of real-world problems, and they developed their engineering identities through the experience. This exploratory study seeks to encourage engineering educators to facilitate social justice discussions and to offer ill-structured, real-world problems to students.