Talk delivered at the 14th Symposium on Engineering and Liberal Education at Union College on September 23, 2023.

1. Educating Engineers
for Civic-mindedness
Erhardt Graeff
Olin College of Engineering
14th Symposium on Engineering and Liberal Education //
23 September 2023

2. ● What opportunities exist to enhance
civic-mindedness in engineering
and engineering education?
● Reviewing literature from
engineering, education, philosophy,
social sciences
● Conducting 1:1 interviews with, so
far, 17 pioneering engineering
educators and practitioners
● Funding from Kettering Foundation

3. defining “civic”

4. Educating for
Civic-mindedness
(Bringle and Steinberg
2010, p. 429, quoted in
Kreber 2016, p. 7)
● Civic-mindedness is “a person’s
inclination or disposition to be
knowledgeable of and involved in
the community, and to have a
commitment to act upon a sense of
responsibility as a member of that
community.”
● Civic-minded graduate “has the
capacity and desire to work with
others to achieve the common
good”

5. Educating for
Civic-mindedness
(Kreber 2016, p. 8)
Authentic Professional is capable of:
● “constructing an identity around
purposes of personal value”
● “constructing an identity around
purposes of public value, common
good, and social justice”
● “being afforded the opportunity to
enact this identity in practice”
● “having disposition to cope with the
state of affairs in which we find
ourselves”

6. Educating for
Civic-mindedness
(Kreber 2016, p. 59)
Need engaged, “transformational”
learning experiences to cultivate:
● public and practical reasoning
● integrity
● emotional awareness
● imagination
● empathy
● relationship-building with rapport
● confidence to act for change
● ability to communicate professional
knowledge accessibly

7. culture of disengagement

8. (Alba and Love
2023; Haidt 2022;
Speck 2022)

9. (NSPE 2019; ACM 2018;
Rosenberg 1998; Giorgini et al. 2015;
McNamara, Smith, and Murphy-Hill 2018)

10. (NAE 2008)

11. (NAE 2008;
Spicer, Kay, and Ganz 2019)

12. (Cech 2012, pp. 92–93)
Reflexivity: “a critical examination of
engineers’ role in the past, present and
future of societies—in both problem
definition and problem solution”
Broadened Participation: “The voices
of other professionals and the broader
constituencies impacted by those
solutions should be included at various
stages in the process”

13. Culture of
Disengagement
in Engineering
Education?
(Cech 2014, p. 45)
Engineering’s Ideological Pillars of
Disengagement
● Depoliticization
● Technical/Social Dualism
● Meritocracy

14. Culture of
Disengagement
in Engineering
Education?
(Cech 2014)

15. expert opinions

16. Common values
of Engineers
● Engineering for positive change
● Public safety
● Responsibility to clients and users
● Stewardship of society, environment

17. Values to
emphasize
● Engineering for positive change
● Public safety
● Responsibility to clients and users
● Stewardship of society, environment
● Contextual understanding
● Participatory practice
● Responsibility for technology risks
● Co-owning projects with communities
● Environmental protection
● Social justice
● Human rights

18. Values to
de-emphasize
● Self-promotion and risk mitigation
● Money, efficiency, optimization matter
too much
● “Rationality as an obsession”
● Engineers as problem solvers in every
context
● Obsessing about technology rather
than challenges and context
● Mathematical thinking
over-emphasized
● Hubris

19. Attributes of a
civically-
competent
engineer
● Complex systems thinking
● Aware of embeddedness in
socio-technical systems
● Value and spend time in communities;
working with community partners
● Projects should be participatory and
attentive to power
● Care, humility, and empathy
● Personally engaged in their
communities

20. Successful Civic
Learning in
Engineering
● Examples:
○ EPICS at Purdue University
○ Engineers without Borders
○ Humanitarian Engineering at
Colorado School of Mines
○ Peace Engineering at Drexel
University
○ The Constellation Prize

21. Successful Civic
Learning in
Engineering
● Out of classrooms and into
communities
● Exposure to the complexity of
different contexts
● Careful scaffolding: right-sized scope
to make a meaningful contribution
● Calibrate political charge of projects
● Authentic and long-term community
partnerships
● Time to reflect on experiences
● Not a single module or course

22. Pitfalls of Civic
Learning in
Engineering
● Isolated experiences are failures
● Civic learning goals aren’t
check-boxes
● Can’t bury the lede on intentions or
need for lifelong learning and practice
● Don’t try too much in a semester
● Collaborations at faculty level, not
institutional level can create tensions
● Faculty aren’t trained in how to this
● Interdisciplinary courses need
interdisciplinary faculty

23. civic professionalism

24. (Boyte 2008; Boyte 2009; Boyte and Fretz 2010;
Dzur 2004; Dzur 2010; Dzur 2018)

25. Undergraduate
Engineering
as Civic
Professionalism
(Graeff and Wood 2021)
● Professional Identity: civic
professionals do not distinguish
between their civic and professional
responsibilities; they are motivated
by the common good and seek to
produce common goods.
● Professional Practice: civic
professionalism is defined by its
commitment to democratic
participation

26. Virtues of Civic
Professionalism
● Identity + practices with epistemic
humility / epistemological pluralism,
politics, the common good
● Anti-technocratic; engaged in
broader socio-political questions
● A positive ethics of virtue a la
(Schmidt 2013)
● More aligned with community
organizing rather than the
“encroaching” and depoliticizing
(Spicer, Kay, and Ganz 2019)

27. Virtues of Civic
Professionalism
● Identity + practices with epistemic
humility / epistemological pluralism,
politics, the common good
● Anti-technocratic; engaged in
broader socio-political questions
● A positive ethics of virtue a la
(Schmidt 2013)
● More aligned with community
organizing rather than the
“encroaching” and depoliticizing
(Spicer, Kay, and Ganz 2019)

28. Virtues of Civic
Professionalism
● Identity + practices with epistemic
humility / epistemological pluralism,
politics, the common good
● Anti-technocratic; engaged in
broader socio-political questions
● A positive ethics of virtue a la
(Schmidt 2013)
● More aligned with community
organizing rather than the
“encroaching” and depoliticizing
(Spicer, Kay, and Ganz 2019)

29. Virtues of Civic
Professionalism
● Identity + practices with epistemic
humility / epistemological pluralism,
politics, the common good
● Anti-technocratic; engaged in
broader socio-political questions
● A positive ethics of virtue a la
(Schmidt 2013)
● More aligned with community
organizing rather than the
“encroaching” and depoliticizing
(Spicer, Kay, and Ganz 2019)

30. bright spots

31. Opportunities and
Challenges
(Borrego et al. 2010;
Beilefeld and Canney
2014; Canney and
Bielefeldt 2015; Rulifson
and Bielefeldt 2017)
● Service learning has grown and
improved
● Civic engagement in engineering
education is being intentionally
studied
● Structural barriers exist
● But, innovators keep trying new
things…

32. Opportunities and
Challenges
(Lin and Hess 2020;
Lin and Hess 2021;
Lin and Hess 2022;
Morgan et al. 2019)
● Service learning has grown and
improved
● Civic engagement in engineering
education is being intentionally
studied
● Structural barriers exist
● But, innovators keep trying new
things…

33. Opportunities and
Challenges
● Service learning has grown and
improved
● Civic engagement in engineering
education is being intentionally
studied
● Structural barriers exist
● But, innovators keep trying new
things…

34. Opportunities and
Challenges
● Service learning has grown and
improved
● Civic engagement in engineering
education is being intentionally
studied
● Structural barriers exist
● But, innovators keep trying new
things…

35. Logic Magazine / Science for the People

36. We need a
civic professionalism
movement in engineering.
Erhardt Graeff
Olin College of Engineering
egraeff@olin.edu
erhardtgraeff.com