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Abstract
Engineers are crucial to solving the world’s most pressing challenges, but they cannot do it alone. Creating new and more just systems that support people and planet requires that engineers learn to engage with diverse stakeholders as equal partners. This article shares how the Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) initiative at the Georgia Institute of Technology has been introducing new approaches to problem-solving into engineering and technology-focused education to better prepare students to address the sustainability challenges of our moment, in collaboration with community partners, especially those from historically marginalized communities of color. To do this, SLS focuses on de-centering academic expertise and positioning community partners as experts, innovators, and co-educators. The activities and impacts described here, including course-based collaborations with community partners and co-curricular social innovation programs, have implications for other higher education institutions that recognize the importance of partnering with communities to prepare students to use their education to effect change.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Rittel and Webber, “Dilemmas in a General Theory.”
2 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Environmental Engineering.
3 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Strengthening Sustainability Programs.
4 Tabulawa, “Interdisciplinarity, Neoliberalism and Academic Identities,” 13.
5 Bilge, “Intersectionality Undone,” 407; Smele et al, “Doing Feminist Difference Differently” 1, 3.
6 Smele et al, 3.
7 “ReGenesis Case Study.”
8 Shove and Walker, “CAUTION! Transitions Ahead.”
9 Funtowicz and Ravetz, “Environmental Problems.”
10 Ibid., 753.
11 Verrax, “Engineering Ethics,” 77.
12 Lucena et al., Engineering and Sustainable Community Development, 9.
13 Ibid., 135.
14 Downey, “What is Engineering Studies For?,” 70, 57.
15 Ottinger, “Rupturing Engineering Education,” 245-246.
16 Cohen and Ottinger, “Introduction: Environmental Justice,” 2-3.
17 Georgia Institute of Technology, Assessment of the Quality Enhancement Plan.
18 SLS, “QEP,” 10.
19 Lucena, Schneider, and Leydens, Engineering and Sustainable Community Development; Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa; Mies, “The Myth of Catching-Up Development.”
20 Agyeman et al, Just Sustainabilities.
21 See Mitchell, “Critical Service-Learning”; and Stoecker, Liberating Service Learning.
22 Lima and Oakes, Service Learning: Engineering in Your Community, 199, 199.
23 Ibid, 194.
24 Lima, “The LSU Playground Project,” 504.
25 Ibid., 47.
26 Kretzman and McKnight, Building Communities; “ABCD Institute Resources.”
27 Smith, Social Innovation, Democracy, and Maker Spaces, 2.
28 For example, see Dorado and Giles, “Serving-Learning Partnerships” and Chupp et al., “Toward Authentic University-Community Engagement.”
29 Ottinger, “Rupturing Engineering Education.”
30 Lucena et al., Engineering and Sustainable Community Development, 92.
31 Ravel et al., “Evolving Engineering Education.”
32 To learn more about SLS’s partnership approach, see the SLS Partnership Strategy.
33 See WAWA webpage: https://www.wawa-online.org/
34 See Groundwork Atlanta webpage: http://www.groundworkatlanta.org/
35 Chupp and Joseph, “Getting the Most Out.”
36 Much of the assessment data included here comes from the QEP Impact Report submitted by Georgia Tech to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) in March 2021.
37 Pruett and Weigel, “Concept Map Assessment,” 1.
38 Georgia Institute of Technology, Strategic Plan.
39 Tryon and Stoecker, “The Unheard Voices.”
40 The Democracy Collaborative, Anchor Dashboard.
41 UNESCO, Education for Sustainable Development.
42 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Strengthening Sustainability Programs.