scholarly journals Engineering Education and the Drive for Social Justice in Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 716-722
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Engineering Education ◽  
Core Curriculum ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Social Justice Education ◽  
Core Subject ◽  
Distribution Of Resources ◽  
Equal Recognition ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Do So

Engineering social justice education (ESJ) is an emerging core subject in engineering education (EE)and profession. However, several EE institutions are yet to incorporate social justice (SJ) into engineering courses, leading to strong advocacy for EE review of programmes. This paradigm shift is align with ESJ revised curricula to increase the power of engineering knowledge integrated with SJ, which explicitly harnessed in serving vulnerable society, thereby addressing injustices and inequalities; hence the crux of this paper. This paper was guided by Nancy Fraser’s theory of SJ that elucidates that a more equitable distribution of resources is interrelated with equal recognition of different identities/groups within a society. This theory looks at how individuals are prevented from participating as equals by denying them of available resources to do so. This paper takes a broad look at the impact of integrating SJ in EE in Africa, while examining the extent EE has addressed numerous inequalities and, exploring how engineering practitioners can work towards a more just and equitable society. The significance of SJ in EE in the 21st century were discussed among others. Thus, to address social justice in EE, collaboration amongst educational sector and engineering industrialists are central in building and revising EE curriculum inclusive of SJ themes to consolidate engineering professional ethics. This will transform the way educators think about ESJ through creating or converting existing core curriculum courses to attract, retain, and motivate engineering students to become professionals to enact SJ in engineering field.

Digitizing Dissection: A Case Study on Augmented Reality and Animation in Engineering Education

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin G. Kearney ◽  
Elizabeth M. Starkey ◽  
Scarlett R. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Augmented Reality ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Engineering Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Virtual Education ◽  
Traditional Learning ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
Future Work ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Advancing virtual education through technology is an important step for engineering education. This has been made evident by the educational difficulties associated with the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Maintaining educational standards while using virtual learning is something possibly solved through researching new educational technologies. A potential technology that can enhance virtual education is Augmented Reality, since it can show information that would otherwise not be easily experienced or obtained. Traditional learning tools fail to offer the ability to control objects and explore numerous perspectives the way augmented reality can. Augmented reality can be even further enhanced through the addition of animation. Animation could add the ability to see motion, increasing overall understanding as well as increasing the motivation to learn. When motion is not visualized, it must be perceived, which can increase cognitive load and cause the limitations of working memory to be met. Reaching the limits of working memory has been shown to negatively affect learning. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the impact of digitizing product dissection on engineering student learning and cognitive load. Specifically, we sought to identify the impact of Augmented Reality and Animations through a full factorial experiment with 61 engineering students. The results of the study show that the virtual condition with animation exhibited increased effectiveness as a learning tool. It also showed that augmented reality is not significantly different than a virtual environment in the context of product dissection. The results of this study are used to explore future uses of augmented reality and animation in education, as well as lay the groundwork for future work to further explore these technologies.

scholarly journals A Critical Appraisal of Dismissals at the Behest of a Third Party: The Impact of the Constitutional Labour Rights

Obiter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-125
Author(s):  
Tumo Charles Maloka
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Critical Appraisal ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Disciplinary Power ◽  
Security Services ◽  
The Third ◽  
Statutory Protection ◽  
The Third Party ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Do So

The pivotal judgments on dismissals at the behest of a third party – East Rand Proprietary Mines Ltd v UPUSA, Lebowa Platinum Mines v Hill, NUMSA v Hendor Mining Supplies a Division of Marschalk Beleggings (Pty) Ltd, TSI Holdings (Pty) Ltd v NUMSA, NUPSAW obo Mani v National Lotteries Board and NUMSA v High Goal Investments t/a Chuma Security Services – deeply implicate discrimination in all its manifestations, accountability, gendered precariousness and social justice. This contribution explores the focal questions raised in recent times concerning the fairness of a dismissal at the instance of a third party. First, there are fundamental points relating to the constitutional and statutory protection of security of employment. Secondly, there are those familiar problems often associated with substantive and procedural fairness that surface here under the guise of questioning the disciplinary power of the employer. In this context, inroads into managerial prerogative and disciplinary procedure are amplified where there has been no fault on the part of the employee and no breakdown of the trust relationship, or where the employee has been disciplined, but not dismissed and the employer did not want to terminate the employee’s employment but was coerced by the third party to do so. Thirdly, there is the thorny issue of the reason behind the third-party demand and the related issue of intolerability caused by the targeted employee. And finally, there is the issue of striking in support of a demand for dismissal of a co-employee.

scholarly journals Serious Play in Education for Social Justice - A Mixed-Methods Evaluation

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Wartenweiler
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Evaluation Model ◽  
Social Justice Education ◽  
School Students ◽  
Consumer Habits ◽  
The Impact

Fair Battles is a 12-week Swiss education for social justice program with the goal of sensitizing high school students about the impact of their consumer habits on society. The pedagogical concept of Fair Battles is to employ the tool of serious play to enhance students’ social empathy, which then leads to service learning projects. This exploratory mixed-methods study examined the impact of the program by using pre- and post-program student surveys (n=16) and post program semi-structured qualitative student interviews (n=10). The survey data were analyzed using SPSS and the interview data were analyzed using template analysis. The results were organized according to Kirkpatrick’s four-level evaluation model. The quantitative results show a statistically significant increase in the post-program survey scores for the learning and behavior level. The qualitative results suggest that the program had a positive impact on students on all four of Kirkpatrick’s levels. The conclusions are that the Fair Battels program is impactful, that social justice education needs to be holistic and that the combination of serious play and service learning elements seems to be effective for social justice education. Further research in the area of social justice education and serious play is recommended

scholarly journals The Impact of Entrepreneurship on Engineering Education

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Majed Jarrar ◽  
Hanan Anis
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Education ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Direct Observation ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Graduate Attributes ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

Engineering schools are integrating entrepreneurship within their curriculum in order to equip their students with the capacity to adapt quickly to technological innovation. The University of Ottawa has developed an entrepreneurship course that is open to all engineering students, and aims to provide them with a hands-on approach to starting and growing a technology start-up. This paper is centred on assessing the students who took this course. The results of the survey analyze the impact entrepreneurship has had on their engineering skillset. This skillset reflects the graduate attributes that the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) expects engineering students to develop. We will observe whether this impact has changed since the inception of this course in 2012 and throughout 5 course cycles. Using the survey results as well as the direct observation during those semesters, we present our analysis on how these outcomes can be replicated in other environments.

scholarly journals Retooling Engineering for Social Justice: The use of explicit models for analytical thinking, critical reflection, and peer-review in Swedish engineering education

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 13-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarina Larsen ◽  
Johan Gärdebo
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Engineering Education ◽  
Peer Review ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Pedagogical Tools ◽  
Analytical Thinking ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Practical Experiences

This paper engages with social justice in engineering education based on pedagogical tools aimed at improving analytical reading, writing and critical reflection in course activities. The authors conceptualizes analytical thinking, critical reflection, and web-based peer review as tools for transformation of student learning, and apply these tools as instructions to engineering students studying city planning in Stockholm, Sweden. Students were asked to use the tools to critically analyze the role of national identities, social vis-à-vis technological engineering, and what politics have shaped Swedish society. In studying these aspects of city planning, the authors argue for a shift in attention toward the practices of engineers’ work around issues of social justice, an argument reinforced by the results of textual analysis of student essay reflections on social justice in city planning. The results are a wide range of themes of critical reflection made by students arising from course activities. These included balancing social and environmental justice, like suburban segregation, planning ideals and, in some cases, challenges for the planning profession. We argue that these are valuable lessons for engineers, which can be achieved by combining practical experiences of planning practices with tools for advancing critical and analytical skills of engineering students. By analyzing engineering students’ views on solutions and challenges of addressing social justice in practice, we can improve our understanding of the engineering skills required to work with social justice. In this way, the study complements discussion and critiques of the relationships between society and engineering outlined in the rhetoric of engineering grand challenges, and contributes by discussing new roles for engineers in facing day-to-day challenges working with social justice.

scholarly journals Service and Design as Mechanisms to Impassion the Study of Engineering, from K-12 to Higher Education

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
Brent C Houchens
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Education ◽  
Graduate Education ◽  
Personal Development ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Team Leadership ◽  
Leadership Strategies ◽  
Mentoring Program ◽  
Traditional Course ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

Service and design provide mechanisms to introduce students to successive stages of engineering education.  These activities positively influence outreach to K-12 students, recruiting of women and underrepresented minorities to engineering, retention of undergraduate engineering students, and encouragement and funding for graduate education.  Furthermore, service and design provide continuity and motivation across engineering education.  These offer experiential learning opportunities in practical problem solving, while simultaneously promoting personal development of communication skills and team leadership.  Strategies are discussed for implementing service and design components in engineering education at all levels, from K-12 to graduate education.  For K-12 outreach, a mentoring program called DREAM is highlighted.  Opportunities for outreach and externally reviewed proposal writing and presentations are discussed in the context of undergraduate design.  These can be implemented through both traditional course work and alternative design projects.  Finally, the impact of all of the above activities on graduate education, particularly graduate funding, is discussed.

scholarly journals FIRST YEAR ENGINEERING DESIGN – GUELPH’S TEDDY BEAR WHEEL CHAIR EXPERIENCE

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warren Stiver
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Education ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
First Year ◽  
Teddy Bear ◽  
Design Project ◽  
Hands On ◽  
Wheel Chair ◽  
Do So

First year engineering design courses arenow common across Canadian engineering schools.These courses can be challenging to develop and deliver.They are often stuck in the chicken versus egg problem.Can I teach design with no engineering? Can I teachengineering with no design? How does one introducefour years of engineering education and an engineeringcareer in one course? How to do so across many or allengineering disciplines? How to do so in a foundationalmanner? Can it be done in a meaningful way? Can it beengaging and fun? A Teddy Bear Wheel Chair (TBWC)design project is the focal point of Guelph’s first yearengineering design course. The TBWC integratescomputers, mechanics, biomechanics (Teddy Bear style),environment, safety, sustainability, materials, costing,hands-on, perseverance, ethics and DESIGN. The TBWCparticipates in curling, sprinting and scoring goals. Theresult is a challenging and fun competition thatintroduces all of Guelph’s engineering students to theirengineering design careers. This paper and presentationwill share one instructor’s efforts to make all of this work.

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