2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Despite recent efforts to increase critical thinking and social awareness in engineering education, research has shown that students still struggle to fully consider the broader ethical implications of their work (Sarker et al., 2024). Researchers have utilized various approaches, such as journal writing (Korgel, 2013) and multi week course projects (Castaneda, 2019) with mixed results. While journal writing has shown promise in transitioning students from passive to dialogical learning, more practical methods like ill-structured problems have not consistently fostered curiosity. Further research is needed to identify effective strategies for cultivating critical consciousness among engineering students.

To address this gap, this case study examines how marginalized engineering students develop critical consciousness through biweekly pláticas with their peers. This study was guided by the questions: (1) How does the use of a pláticas as methodology within a participatory action research framework influence the development of critical consciousness among engineering students?, and (2) In what ways does this approach shape engineering students’ understanding of systemic inequities within engineering spaces? To answer these questions, we collected data from 3 participants (1 female, 2 males) enrolled in different engineering programs at a Hispanic Serving Institution in the U.S. Southwest. We conducted pláticas over a period of 3 months focusing on common practices related to language, communication, and social interactions that contribute to biased beliefs about what constitutes engineering knowledge, who is considered a suitable engineer, and who is recognized as a legitimate engineer (authors, 2023). Our goal was to explore how a pláticas methodology (Guajardo & Guajardo, 2013) within a participatory action research framework (Fine et al, 2003; Whyte et al., 1991) can effectively foster critical consciousness while students are building their engineering identities. As part of this study and to determine the impact that a pláticas approach has on students’ development of critical consciousness, we collected weekly reflections from participants, audio recordings of the pláticas sessions, and multimodal artifacts (e.g., social media posts) collected by the participants. The purpose of these data collection methods was two-fold: (1) to analyze the meaning- and sense-making of the participants as they became more aware of the words and the world around them (Freire & Macedo, 2005), and (2) to prompt participants to engage in critical dialogue with others.

Preliminary findings suggest that while students are cognizant of some inequities and injustices affecting their and their peers' experiences in engineering, this awareness is many times superficial and personal. Through dialogue they begin to recognize the broader systemic and structural, socioeconomic, and ethnoracial inequities that negatively affect them, their peers, and their communities. The findings from this study have significant implications for engineering education and engineering education research, as they reveal the potential of using a pláticas methodology to deepen students’ critical consciousness and prompt actionable change in engineering programs.

References

Authors, 2023
Castaneda, D. I. (2019). Exploring Critical Consciousness in Engineering Curriculum Through an Ill-Structured Problem. 2019 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE43999.2019.9028370
Fine, M., Torre, M. E., Boudin, K., Bowen, I., Clark, J., Hylton, D., Martinez, M., Missy, Roberts, R. A., Smart, P., & Upegui, D. (2003). Participatory action research: From within and beyond prison bars. In Qualitative research in psychology: Expanding perspectives in methodology and design. (2003-04376-010; pp. 173–198). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10595-010
Freire, P., & Macedo, D. (2005). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. Routledge.
Guajardo, F., & Guajardo, M. (2013). The power of plática. Reflections: A Journal of Public Rhetoric, Civic Writing, and Service Learning, 13(1), 159–164.
Korgel, B. A. (2013). Nurturing Faculty-Student Dialogue, Deep Learning and Creativity through Journal Writing Exercises. Journal of Engineering Education, 91(1), 143–146. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2002.tb00684.x
Sarker, T., Poleacovschi, C., Nelson, T. N. T., Swalwell, K., Svec, J., Appelgate, M. H., Jackson, C., & Cetin, K. (2024). Validating a Critical Consciousness Scale for Civil Engineers. Journal of Civil Engineering Education, 150(2), 04023011. https://doi.org/10.1061/JCEECD.EIENG-1748
Whyte, W. F., Greenwood, D. J., & Lazes, P. (1991). Participatory Action Research. SAGE Publications, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412985383