From the dominant engineering education perspective to the aim of promoting service to humanity and the common good: the importance of rethinking engineering education

ABSTRACT

Recognising the broader role and impact of engineering in contemporary society makes it necessary to rethink engineering education to strengthen its purpose of service to humanity and to the common good. From this perspective, future engineers need a more comprehensive education that is not only bound to the technical area but also incorporates critical reflection and ethical education. With the objective of facilitating the process of rethinking engineering education, the present study analyses the official mission of Portuguese higher education institutions offering engineering courses to identify current engineering education conceptions and the importance attached in them to the service to humanity view. The results reveal that the dominant conception is centred on the economic view of engineering and of the engineer. These results reinforce the need to build a new perspective that strengthens the role of engineering as a service to humanity, social justice and the common good.

KEYWORDS:

• Engineering education
• critical reflection
• social justice
• sustainability
• service to humanity
• conception of engineering

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Fátima Monteiro ([email protected]), since 1995 is Adjunct Professor in the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Coimbra (www.isec.pt) (Coimbra Engineering School, Portugal); have an academic background in Electrical and Computers Engineering, in Education and Adult Training and Education Science (Universidade do Porto); the current interests of research are within the interconnection between engineering education, philosophy and educational sciences, mainly in the field of ethics and civic education of engineering students’, in the conception of the engineer as an social and political actor and the design, in the assessment of learning and in the designed and implementation of curriculum in engineering courses.

Carlinda Leite ([email protected]), is full professor of Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação (www.fpce.up.pt) (Faculty of Psycology & Educational Sciences) – Universidade do Porto (Porto, Portugal); with PhD in Educational Sciences; is the author of several books, book chapters and articles in scientific journals; the current interests of research are: educational and curricular policies; education and multiculturalism; Assessment of learning; institutional evaluation and the quality of training; policies and teacher training models and teaching in higher education.

Cristina Rocha ([email protected]), is associate Professor of Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação (www.fpce.up.pt) (Faculty of Psycology & Educational Sciences) – Universidade do Porto (Porto, Portugal), with an academic background in Sociology and PhD in Educational Sciences; is the author of several books, book chapters and articles in scientific journals; the current interests of research are: Social history of the professions and professional knowledge; Sociohistorical family and childhood; family and childhood sociology; social policies and social protection contexts; training and social change systems.

ORCID

Fátima Monteiro http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4398-0809