2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

As engineering enters K-8 educational settings, it is important to introduce the discipline in equity-oriented ways. Youth need to connect engineering to their lives and consider the impacts of engineering in the world. Engineering solutions can disproportionately impact—benefit or harm—certain populations. This differential impact cuts along class and race lines, raising important ethical questions for engineers as they address the criteria and constraints of stakeholders. As youth engage with engineering activities and curricula, it is important that they consider these elements. The emergent field of engineering for social justice urges that decision making related to engineering designs and solutions consider technical, social, environmental, and ethical contexts. Situating engineering in such contexts can be motivating to learners and provide perspectives on the nature of the engineering. Thus, building a socially engaged engineering educational orientation both authentically frames the discipline and provides insights into the epistemic practices of the field that potentially motivate students. Youth learn how engineering benefits or harms local communities and the environment as well as how to analyze possible impacts of design solutions.

This theoretical paper proposes a framework for K-8 educators, researchers, and curriculum designers that depicts the technical, social, environmental, and ethical dimensions of engineering. Situating engineering in this way raises questions for educators: How can educators help to nurture such understandings in youth? How should K-8 engineering connect to issues of social justice? How can activities or curricula be structured to address these goals? These questions have driven our work, resulting in the articulation of a framework for socially engaged engineering. This paper will review and summarize the literatures that informed our work—we drew from theoretical and empirical research in (college) engineering education, K-12 engineering education, K-12 science education, and social justice in education. From this review, a set of themes emerged that we honed through discussions with experts from engineering, K-12 education, and social justice in education. We distilled these themes into three principles that can inform curricula, instruction, and assessment. The principles provide agency for youth to engage with the disciplinary practices of engineering in a socially engaged manner and include: (P1) Learners situate the problem in its local, community, and societal context. (P2) Learners consider the impacts of the problem on different individuals, groups, or systems as they make design decisions. (P3) Learners reflect on the applications and limitations of their design across technical, social, and ethical criteria.

To test the applicability of our principles, we applied them to K-8 curricula for school and out-of-school environments. A coevolution of principles and curricular materials ensued—cycles of revising the theory and its instantiation in resources led to the development of our framework. Age-appropriate learning objectives for three levels—lower elementary, upper elementary, and middle school—resulted. This paper will share the principles and progression, showing worked examples from curricula to demonstrate how the principles translate into curricular resources. Finally, the paper will share data from educators and student work that demonstrate the power of a socially engaged approach to interest and motivate learners.