2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The applied nature of engineering design projects allow generative discussions about social justice topics related to students’ projects. Some design projects, such as service-learning or community-engaged projects, pair students directly with community partners who have a specific need or interest in a particular social justice topic. Though initiated with good intentions, some projects can leave students with a hierarchical helping or charity mindset, which results in students placing themselves above the people for whom they are designing. Rather, in projects which promote a justice mindset, students seek deeper causes of injustice and situate all stakeholders as equal participants in the design process, such as in co-design.

In an attempt to develop a pedagogical practice which promotes adopting a justice mindset, twenty students in their second- through fifth-year of a sustainable design engineering degree completed structured reflections upon returning from an international, short-term, community-engagement design project. They then participated in an in-person group reflective activity to identify the difference between charity and justice mindsets, and they were given the option to revise their responses to the initial reflection (to re-reflect). Using qualitative analysis techniques, this study sought to determine: 1) whether participants demonstrated a charity or justice mindset in the written responses and 2) whether the pedagogical technique is effective.

Results indicate that participants demonstrate both charity and justice mindsets, and 64% of participants (n=19) shift towards justice mindsets. Participants overwhelmingly affirm the usefulness of the activity (95%) and state that justice mindsets should be strived for (89%). They engaged in the activity and revised an average of 29% of the questions. After the one-hour discussion, 68% of participants have a good understanding of justice mindset and an additional 21% have an incomplete but passing understanding. The three-part activity is an effective way to shift mindsets towards justice, particularly in the re-reflection step. Justice conversations are relevant for all design classrooms and should not be relegated to community-engaged projects. Engineers are equipped, in ideal positions, to address systemic causes of inequity, and design projects provide opportunities for discussion. This paper documents a one-hour reflective pedagogical technique to help students shift towards justice mindsets.