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ES-ED centers social justice in engineering curriculum.
With the evolution of engineering curriculum, we can transition the role of the engineer to encompass bridging the gap between sustainability,
equity, and social justice.
Who writes the curriculum?
Who benefits from the status quo of engineering education?
Whose perspectives are missing from the curriculum?
Curriculum is a means to educate and inspire engineering students to solve some of the world's greatest challenges. When we look critically at engineering curriculum, what role in society are engineers truly being prepared for? In many ways, the current state of engineering curriculum has helped to preserve a culture that does not place equity at the heart of engineering practice. The positive and negative impacts of work done by engineers are not shared equitably in society, which furthers the pervasive systematic oppression of historically marginalized groups.
Our model seeks to systematically build a sense of responsibility in engineers to ensure the impacts of our work, whether good or bad, are shared equitably in society. We seek to cultivate in engineers (1) the practice of acknowledging and reconciling our history, (2) the empathy that will help foster a shift in power dynamics toward a world in which all communities have a voice in problem defining and solving, and (3) the ability to think critically about centering social justice in our practice of engineering and beyond. We also hope that our work can help to address the retainment of greater diversity in the field of engineering by creating a sense of purpose and belonging as a student, as a practitioner, and as an educator.
Mission
To provide open-source learning materials that center social justice in the engineering curriculum.
Vision
To build a more equitable, multicultural literate society by transforming the practice of engineering through education, allowing engineers to become better informed, active global citizens.
Values
Equity
Sustainability Empowerment Collaboration
What we offer
ES-ED
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This website contains open-source instructive materials that seek to cultivate an engineering identity of social justice in engineers. Our process utilized participatory design to create, with students, faculty, and experts, a series of curriculum supplements with corresponding assignments. Through this work we sought to illustrate the cross section of historically minoritized populations excelling in engineering. Our curriculum supplement seeks to engage:
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those that understand the value of social justice but want to dive deeper in how it relates to engineering,
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those complicit in the status quo of engineering practice but don’t equate their actions to positive or negative social change,
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those that want to learn something new, and
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those that want to reinforce concepts they have already learned to become better allies.