International Perspectives on Engineering Education : Engineering Education and Practice in Context

This inclusive cross-cultural study rethinks the nexus between engineering education and context. In so doing the book offers a reflection on contextual boundaries with an overall boundary crossing ambition and juxtaposes important cases of critical participation within engineering education with sophisticated scholarly reflection on both opportunities and discontents.

Whether and in what way engineering education is or ought to be contextualized or de-contextualized is an object of heated debate among engineering educators. The uniqueness of this study is that this debate is given comprehensive coverage – presenting both instrumentally inclined as well as radical positions on transforming engineering education.

In contextualizing engineering education, this book offers diverse commentary from a range of disciplinary, meta- and interdisciplinary perspectives on how cultural, professional, institutional and educational systems contexts shape histories, structural dynamics, ideologies and challenges as well as new pathways in engineering education. Topics addressed include examining engineering education in countries ranging from India to America, to racial and gender equity in engineering education and incorporating social awareness into the area.

Using context as “bridge” this book confronts engineering education head on. Contending engineering ideologies and corresponding views on context are juxtaposed with contending discourses of reform. The uniqueness of the book is that it brings together scholars from the humanities, the social sciences and engineering from Europe – both East and West –  with the United States, China, Brazil, India and Australia.

Steen Hyldgaard Christensen M.A. in Scandinavian Language and Literature and the History of Ideas, Aarhus University. Ph.D. in Educational Studies, Aalborg University. Senior lecturer at Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Sciences, Herning, Denmark, until 2014. From 2014, adjunct associate professor at Aalborg University, Denmark. He has initiated six big international inter- and metadisciplinary research projects on engineering including PROCEED and coordinated fi ve of them. He has acted in roles of editor-in-chief and coauthor of four books: Profession, Culture, and Communication: An Interdisciplinary Challenge to Business and Engineering (Institute of Business Administration and Technology Press 2003); Philosophy in Engineering (Academica 2007); Engineering in Context (Academica 2009); and Engineering, Development and Philosophy: American, Chinese, and European Perspectives (Springer 2012). Besides, he has coauthored A Hybrid Imagination: Science and Technology in Cultural Perspective (Morgan & Claypool Publishers 2011) together with Andrew Jamison and Lars Botin. In addition, he has published a number of articles on engineering epistemology, culture, and education. Current research interest includes academic drift in engineering education and structural dynamics in higher education.

Christelle Didier B.S. in Electrochemistry Engineering, M.A. in Education, Ph.D. in Sociology from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris. From 1993 to 2013, Assistant Professor, Lille University, France, Ethics Department. Assistant Professor, Charles de Gaulle University of Lille, Education Department. Member of CIREL (EA 4354). Coauthor of Ethique industrielle (DeBoeck, Brussels, 1998) and author of Penser l’éthique des ingénieurs (PUF, Paris 2008) and Les ingénieurs et l’éthique: Pour un regard sociologique (Hermes 2008). She has published many articles on ethics and social responsibility in the engineering profession and education and on the engineering profession’s values (from interviews and extensive surveys). Her research areas are engineering ethics and values, including historical, cultural, and gender perspective, sustainable development and corporate social responsibility, social responsibility.

Andrew Jamison B.A. in History and Science from Harvard University, Ph.D. in Theory of Science from University of Gothenburg (Göteborg). Docent in Theory of Science, University of Gothenburg. Professor of Technology, Environment, and Society at Aalborg University. Coordinator of Program of Research on Opportunities and Challenges in Engineering Education in Denmark (PROCEED), 2010–2013, and author, most recently, of The Making of Green Knowledge: Environmental Politics and Cultural Transformation (Cambridge 2001), Hubris and Hybrids: A Cultural History of Technology and Science , with Mikael Hård (Routledge 2005), A Hybrid Imagination: Science and Technology in Cultural Perspective (Morgan & Claypool Publishers 2011) together with Steen Hyldgaard Christensen and Lars Botin, and The Making of Green Engineers: Sustainable Development and the Hybrid Imagination (Morgan and Claypool 2013).

Martin Meganck M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from Ghent University, Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, and M.A. Moral Theology both from KU Leuven. Lecturer in Philosophy and Ethics in the Faculty of Engineering Technology, researcher at the Center for Science, Technology, and Ethics, and the Theological Faculty of the KU Leuven. Teaching areas include Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Technology, and Professional and Business Ethics. He was coauthor and coeditor of Philosophy in Engineering (Academica 2007) and Engineering in Context (Academica 2009).

Carl Mitcham B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy from University of Colorado, Boulder. Ph.D. in Philosophy from Fordham University. Professor of Philosophy of Science and Technology, Renmin University of China, Beijing; Liberal Arts and International Studies, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado. Scholarly contributions have been directed toward the philosophy and ethics of science, technology, engineering, and medicine and to science, technology, and society (STS) studies. Teaching areas include ethics, STS, and science and technology policy.

Byron Newberry B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, University of Alabama. M.S. in Aerospace Engineering and Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics, both from Iowa State University. Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Baylor University. Baylor Fellow for teaching. Professional Engineer (PE) Texas, USA. Research interests include engineering design, engineering ethics, and philosophy of engineering and technology. Aircraft structural engineering consultant. Executive board member, National Institute for Engineering Ethics. Editor of the Springer Philosophy of Engineering and Technology book series.