2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

ASEE / TELPhE have offered numerous papers, proposed many approaches, and reported on many programs and initiatives to promote and implement technological and engineering literacy. Overall, these focused on increasing the understanding of engineering and technology among K-12, undergraduates who were not engineering or technology majors, and the citizenry. These comprised K-12 STEM initiatives, success stories from faculty who established general education courses and other initiatives on engineering and technology topics for non-engineering students at their respective institutions, and reports developed in conjunction with national bodies and associations through study and focus groups with the over-arching objective being to present the need for technological and engineering literacy as a positive and beneficial initiative. The hoped-for outcome was that those who experienced this initiative, regardless of its context, would be enjoined as advocates for the importance of engineering and technological literacy as they moved among the citizenry locally, nationally, and internationally. To this end, the division developed a pedagogy, researched history, offered definitions, developed theories, recorded data and published studies, and offered some excellent examples of “Why?” concluding with a 2021 white paper, “Future Directions for Technological and Engineering Literacy and the Philosophy of Engineering” proposing eight actions through which to discuss and assess:
• How to promote the “importance of” message;
• How to get the “benefits of” rationale listened to;
• How to establish civic “recognition / acceptance” that technological and engineering literacy is a “constituent part” of many activities and decisions;
• How to present the discussion of technological and engineering literacy in a “publicly accessible” context?
This paper considers these questions vis-à-vis moving technological and engineering literacy / philosophy of engineering into mainstream conversation.