Engineering has been a field characterized by a hegemonically depoliticized and meritocratic culture. This has contributed to the demographics of engineering skewing wealthier, whiter, and more male. There is a need for theories of change within engineering and engineering education capable of shifting this engineering culture. In this paper, we draw on theories from within and outside of engineering education, including a Freirian critical consciousness model, to construct a liberatory engineering education model connecting theories of change to educational learning and assessment methods. This model is then applied to the context of engineering and labor.
Drawing on the history of labor organizing, in which labor unions have been a vehicle for workers to engage in social mobility and address injustices, we develop an engineering and labor theory of change to describe the potential of labor organizing to create shifts in engineering and engineering educational settings. This theory of change runs counter to the hegemonic technocratic theory of change present in engineering, which has historically limited engineers’ engagement with labor organizing. The resulting liberatory engineering education model connects this theory of change to labor organizing methodologies and a learning method of Bargaining for the Common Good, recognizing that engineers can be community organizers and that labor strikes can be a form of liberatory pedagogy. We also discuss the overlap of skills, tools, and practices from labor organizing with engineering education research methodologies, learning methods, and assessment methods in addition to potential limitations of this theory of change. In doing so, potentials for scholarship, concientização, and praxis via labor organizing in engineering are elucidated in order to provide direction toward liberation.
Joseph 'Joey' Valle is a settler on the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Bodéwadmik (Potawatomi), Lenape (Delaware), Myaamia (Miami), and Shawnee People that Purdue University is built upon and near and a postdoctoral worker in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Dr. Valle received a Ph.D in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor after defending their thesis on Abolitionist Engineering: An Autoethnographic Approach to Understanding How Abolition Can Transform Materials Science and Engineering. They served as President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) local Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO) 3550, the labor union representing graduate workers at University of Michigan, during the 2021-2022 academic year. Presently they work at intersections of equity and engineering workforce development in the ASPIRE (Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification) Engineering Research Center.
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0910-8902
California State University, Los Angeles
[biography]
Corin (Corey) Bowen is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Education, housed in the Department of Civil Engineering at California State University - Los Angeles. Her engineering education research focuses on structural oppression in engineering systems, organizing for equitable change, and developing an agenda of Engineering for the Common Good. She teaches structural mechanics and sociotechnical topics in engineering education and practice. Corey conferred her Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor in April 2021; her thesis included both technical and educational research. She also holds an M.S.E. in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor and a B.S.E. in civil engineering from Case Western Reserve University, both in the areas of structural engineering and solid mechanics.
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0319-9583
Purdue University, West Lafayette
[biography]
Donna Riley is Jim and Ellen King Dean of Engineering and Computing, and Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering at the University of New Mexico.
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